Ferrer Beats Roddick In Another Heartstopper

© Getty ImagesDavid Ferrer has won two ATP World Tour titles from five finals this year.

Spaniard David Ferrer, who has qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the third time, defeated 10th-seeded American Andy Roddick 6-7(5), 6-2, 7-6(2) in another nailbiting encounter on Friday for a place in the Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finals. The World No. 5 saved three match points in his previous match against countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Both Ferrer and Roddick hit 11 aces, but the third-seeded Ferrer managed to save all five break point he faced and won 72 per cent of his service points for victory in two hours and 34 minutes. It was his 50th match win of the season (50-14 overall).

"[I have] more confidence with my first serve," said Ferrer. "This tournament, in the important moments I've served really good. So this is very important to every match."

Added Ferrer, "It's a different [style of] play between Ferrero and Roddick because [they have] different games. Today, in the first set, I didn't think we played so good. But in the second and the third, we played better."

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The 29-year-old Roddick, who had beaten Ferrer at last month's US Open, hit 39 aces in four matches at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. At No. 16 in the Battle for London, Roddick has an outside shot at qualifying for the season finale.

"I played okay [and] I thought he played pretty well," said Roddick. "It was probably the best I hit my chip today of anytime during the week. I wasn't hitting it that well. If it's possible to take a hard slice on the rise, he was doing that. He was missing a little bit in the first [set].

"I thought second and third sets he played at an extremely high level and served pretty well. You normally don't count on him making a lot of first serves, hitting aces. I felt like today he did that and got himself out of trouble a couple of times. When he's doing that, he's definitely tough to beat."

Ferrer is through to his eighth ATP World Tour semi-final (or better) this year. He will next attempt to reach his sixth final on Saturday, when he plays his Spanish compatriot Feliciano Lopez.

Lopez reached the Shanghai semi-finals for the second time by beating Rafael Nadal's conqueror, No. 15 seed Florian Mayer of Germany, 6-2, 6-4 in 70 minutes. It was 30-year-old Lopez's third straight win over Mayer, who was broken three times in the match.

"I think it's going to be a very tough match," said Lopez, looking ahead to Saturday's semi-final. "David is a top player right now this moment, so I know it's going to be tough to beat him. He's a fighter. He's very fast. He's one of the best returners in the game right now, so I know it's going to be a difficult match. If I want to continue winning, I have to play the way I was playing today and yesterday."