Nadal on course to dethrone Federer after win over Robredo

Battling Rafael Nadal moved into the Paris Masters quarter-finals yesterday with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win over Tommy Robredo underlining his threat to unseat Roger Federer as World No 1 by the end of the season.

Nadal on course to dethrone Federer after win over Robredo

With Federer a shock loser to Frenchman Julien Benneteau on Wednesday, a win for Nadal in Sunday's final would leave him just 305 points adrift of his arch rival with the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals to come in London later this month.

Nadal had to save five match points to get past Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro in a second round marathon of over three hours on Wednesday, and he wobbled again against Robredo.

Robredo even served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set but once again Nadal produced his best with his back to the wall to pull through by winning the final three games of the match.

"I was a little less lucky than yesterday," Nadal said. "He served for the match and it was in his hands, but I won anyway. I wasn't playing my best, but I played better than yesterday."

Joining Federer on the sidelines though was fourth seed Andy Murray who found two matches in one day too much to handle as he lost 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

The Scot, who won a season-best sixth title in Valencia on Sunday was taken to 1:45 am the night before in defeating James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-4).

"I said last night it was going to be difficult to come back and feel 100 percent. It's obviously limited recovery after a long match. But you still come out and you try to give it your best shot. Wasn't good enough," he said.

Nikolay Davydenko meanwhile became the seventh player to qualify for the eight-man London Tour Finals despite losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Sweden's Robin Soderling in another third round match.

Next up for Soderling, with a place in the semi-finals at stake, will be third seed Novak Djokovic, who cruised past French qualifier Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-2 in 75
minutes.

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