Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko. Photo via d.yimg.com

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In a tournament that has had one in six matches end in retirement due to injury, the fans in Shanghai finally got to see a high-quality match played to the end in Saturday's first semifinal.

Nikolay Davydenko outlasted second-seed Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1) in an epic battle that lasted just over three hours.  Both played extremely well from start to finish, with strong serving allowing for only one break by each over the entire match.  Both Djokovic and Davydenko were seeing the ball extremely well, smacking the ball at full blast and hitting line after line, leaving commentator Robby Koenig to call what he saw "video game calibre tennis."

But by the end Davydenko was more frequently able to find the balance of aggressiveness and consistency on the big points, winning the third tiebreak with relative ease, 7-1.

Keeping with the pattern of at least one injury retirement each round, Feliciano Lopez dropped nine straight games before retiring against compatriot Rafael Nadal, who was leading 6-1, 3-0 when Lopez finally threw in the towel.

While the final initially looks like a mismatch on paper, Davydenko did crush Nadal in their only previous meeting in a final, beating him 6-4, 6-2 in the finals of the Miami Masters in 2008, a blindsiding upset that was nowhere near as close as the straight sets score lets on.  Nadal has certainly not looked his sharpest in this event, and if Davydenko has enough gas in the tank it could well be another blitzing win for the Russian.

But I'm betting Nadal gets it done in three.  That is, of course, provided the injury bug is finally out of bites.