Nadal to face Davydenko in Shanghai final

Top seed Rafael Nadal profited from the ninth retirement of this week's Shanghai Masters as he advanced into the finals 6-1, 3-0 after fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez retired with a right ankle injury. Nadal, an injury victim himself twice this season, will play Sunday for his fourth Masters 1000 title of the season, facing Nikolay Davydenko. The Russian, who was out for nearly three months with a foot and ankle problem until the spring, ended a lengthy confrontation in dramatic fashion, racing through a third-set tiebreak to sweep second-seed Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1). The Spaniard dominated against his compatriot Lopez over 50 minutes, with the outsider holding his first serve to love and then producing little as his physical problems wore him down.