By DPA
Miami : Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko defeated Andy Roddick 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 defeat a day after the American had narrowly upset Roger Federer at the Miami Masters.
Fourth seed Davydenko clocked his first victory over Roddick in six matches with the semi-final win in less than 90 minutes.
Davydenko, who changed racket strings this month, called himself “just lucky”.
“I’ve lost already five times against Roddick. This is the first time to beat him. For me it’s important in my career.”
The Russian will play on Sunday against Rafael Nadal as the Spaniard reached his second final at Crandon Park 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 over Czech Tomas Berdych.
Nadal leads that series 2-0.
Roddick was unable to follow up on his twice-in-a-lifetime defeat of Federer, who still stands 15-2 in their career series.
“He’s capable of playing well, that’s probably the best he’s played against me,” said the American. “The thing about him is you normally don’t see … the way he served tonight.
“I felt like I was there. I actually hit the ball okay tonight. My serve kind of tailed off at the end there, but I think he returned pretty well, also.”
The American saved a match point before crashing out to Davydenko, who overcame nine aces off the Roddick racket while breaking three times.
The loss leaves Roddick at 19-4 with two titles this season but with little chance to gain with the clay season beginning for the avowed hard-courter.
Nadal needed more than an hour to win the marathon first set against Czech Berdych, missing on his first six set points.
The three-time French Open winner went wrong on three in the 10th game as he served leading 5-4.
Berdych also salvaged three more in the tiebreaker before Nadal went through on a Berdych double-fault.
In the second, the Spaniard quickly began to dominate as he broke twice to wrap up the win with 15 winners and three breaks of serve.
Berdych struck more than 30 unforced errors as Nadal moved ahead 4-3 in their series by claiming his first win over the Czech on hardcourt.
“I think I am playing very well this tournament, so today was great match,” said Nadal, who did not commit an unforced error in the second set.
“Against a very tough player like Berdych, I’m happy for the win. It was a tough match in the beginning of the first set,” Nadal said. “He was hitting a lot of powerful winners.”
“Finally winning the tiebreak was the key to the match.”
Nadal said he was untroubled by hot steamy conditions.
“I’m from an island (Mallorca) so this is normal for me,” he said.
Berdych admitted that he ran out of gas in the closing stages of the draining contest.
“My battery was gone. The first set was the key of the match, and I unlikely lost a couple of points in the end of the set,” he said.
“If you are not 100 per cent with him, then it’s really tough to play.”
Women play their final on Saturday, with Serena Williams facing Jelena Jankovic.