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Nikolay Davydenko booked his place in the semi-finals of the Masters Cup in Shanghai with a 6-3 6-2 win over Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro.

With world number three Novak Djokovic already qualified from the Gold Group, the clash was a straight winner-takes-all scenario, with Davydenko comfortably coming out on top.

Davydenko, bidding to finish in the world's top five for the fourth consecutive year, immediately exploited Del Potro's tiredness by taking him to deuce in the Argentine's opening service game.

Davydenko had to wait until the fourth game though before he secured the break with Del Potro's first serve success rate, just 33 per cent at that stage, letting him down badly.

Del Potro, who has been named in the Argentina team to play Spain in the Davis Cup final in 10 days' time, recovered his composure enough to break back in the seventh game when Davydenko hit long.

But the Russian immediately set up another break point with his explosive cross-court forehand. Del Potro saved the first with a forehand winner of his own but gifted Davydenko a second by slapping down a double fault.

This time Davydenko made no mistake, forcing Del Potro on to the back foot with a huge forehand down the line before racing up to the net to bury the short reply in the open court.

A confident-looking Davydenko then served out the set to love.

The Russian picked up in the second set much where he left off in the first, pushing Del Potro to 30 in the opening game before breaking in the third with yet another cross-court forehand winner.

From there it was simply one-way traffic as Davydenko broke again in the fifth game. The Russian earned a break point by threading a forehand passing shot up the line before sealing the double break lead when Del Potro slapped a forehand long.

Del Potro did rally briefly, just long enough to hold and get his fifth game on the scoreboard, forcing the Russian to serve out the match.

Davydenko quickly set up three match points with two service winners and an emphatic forehand smash. But he only needed the one, and booked his place in the semi-finals when Del Potro hit a forehand return of serve into the bottom of the net.

Davydenko will play the winner of the Andy Murray-Roger Federer clash in the semi-finals. If Murray wins he will top the Red Group and defending champion Federer will crash out of the tournament, with Gilles Simon qualifying second from the group.

"Murray is playing very good tennis in the moment," said Davydenko. "I have had much better results against Murray because this year I won one and I lost one but against Federer I have a 12-0 record. I never win.

"So against Murray I have more chance. It doesn't matter how Murray plays, I have more chance. Federer is not playing his best tennis but you never know. Federer is a different guy every day."

Follow LIVE text commentary and scoring of the Masters Cup from Shanghai all week with eurosport.yahoo.co.uk - on Friday afternoon Andy Murray takes on Roger Federer!!

Pippa Davis / Eurosport