Nikolay Davydenko crashed out of the Mercedes Cup quarter-finals in Stuttgart on Friday after an epic defeat to Fabio Fognini.

Following the exit of top seed Gilles Simon on Thursday, the second seeded Russian world number 11 was favourite to take the title but he met his match in the form of the 22-year-old Italian.

Davydenko had been a comfortable victor in the duo's only previous meeting last year, but after two hours and 20 minutes it was Fognini who emerged a 6-1 3-6 7-5 winner this time around.

He will now meet fourth seed Victor Hanescu in the semi-finals after the Romanian beat France's world number 193 Alexandre Sidorenko 7-6 (7/2) 6-4.