Davydenko holds his nerves

By far the most-travelled Top 10 player this season, Davydenko qualified for the semi-final berth from the Gold Group after a hard-fought second victory of the week, 6-3 6-4, against a highly temperamental but talented Gaudio on Wednesday.

Davydenko's chances of advancing from the Gold Group to Saturday's semi-finals were boosted following the sudden withdrawals of Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal on Monday.

"Roddick and Hewitt didn't come but I still had a tough group with Agassi and Nadal," Ukrainian-born Davydenko said afterwards. "Then they pulled out too so it's great for me. It's big for me to reach the semi-finals. If you get a chance like this you've got to take it."

With 55 match wins to his name, Davydenko looked like a deer in a car's headlights in the opening game of the match hitting a sloppy drop shot and double fault to find himself three break points down.

The Russian battled back however, with six consecutive points only highlighting Gaudio's brittle temperament shown in Monday's win over Argentine compatriot Mariano Puerta.

Davydenko made it 2-0 breaking Gaudio on a second point, with the 2004 French Open champion hitting a forehand into the net. At this stage, neither player could say they were competing at a high level.

As the intensity of the match increased with both players firing from behind the baseline, Gaudio earned his first game to trail Davydenko - a player who has completed 30 tournaments this season - 1-3.

Davydenko's lead didn't last. Each rally was dictated by Gaudio and the Argentine managed to force three errors, breaking Davydenko's serve with a drop shot winner.

Order appeared to be restored, but Davydenko thought otherwise raising his game to strike back immediately with a break of the Gaudio serve to love for 4-2. Moments later Gaudio's temper boiled over with the Argentine splintering a racquet frame.

Unsure of how to out-rally Gaudio from the back of the court, Davydenko became a 'tinkerman': mixing blistering pace with delicate slice; never mastering either. The seventh game of the first set wasn't pretty with Davydenko requiring eight game points and plenty of sweat to confirm a 5-2 lead.

Davydenko extinguished Gaudio's competitive flame with an ace to seal the opening set in 46 minutes, the first time he had lead his opponent in six meetings.

For the 11,000 spectators in the Qi Zhong stadium, the second set was a damp squib with Gaudio cursing his luck throughout.

In the first game, Gaudio found himself break point down after a foot fault call at deuce. A yell of "No, No, No, No" rang out. Davydenko remained ice cold and took the opener.

Davydenko continued through one-way traffic breaking once again in the fifth game. Gaudio destroyed another racquet when he went 5-1 down.

"I think it's normal when you're 6-3 5-1 down and losing easy," commented Gaudio afterwards. "Sometimes you can't control yourself. You do stupid stuff.

"It was one of those days when I couldn't do much so I broke my racket once again."

Three games later Gaudio - a five time ATP tournament winner in 2005 - began to fight and sealed the third of three break points with a smash winner to keep Davydenko on his toes.

As the pressure grew, Davydenko continued unwisely to play on Gaudio's stronger backhand wing and it was in a nail-biting service game at 3-5 that contained six deuces that the 24-year-old Russian held match points.

One point came and went with a Gaudio drop shot winner, another with a display of touch. Gaudio, ninth in the ATP 2005 Race, held on for 4-5 shifting the focus back to Davydenko.

Looking a shell of his former self, 24-year-old Davydenko fought back from 0-40 down winning five consecutive points - closing out on match point No 4 - to add a second win to triumph over American Andre Agassi, on Monday, over one-hour 45 minutes.

Gaudio slipped to 1-1 following his victory over countryman Mariano Puerta on Monday. He must now beat Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, a three set winner over Puerta later in the day, to advance.

Davydenko meanwhile, played down his chances of halting Federer's march to a third straight title on a sticky indoor taraflex surface.

"It's a big chance for me but this surface is very difficult," Davydenko, who is making his Masters Cup debut, told reporters.

"If you don't concentrate you can get injured. For Federer it doesn't matter what surface he plays on. He can play on ice."