Rafael Nadal is in the Shanghai Masters final after Feliciano Lopez limped out of their semi-final match-up.

Lopez was forced to retire, and insisted that he had a right foot infection prior to the game, and then aggravated the situation by twisting his right ankle near the end of the first set. The unseeded player was behind 6-1, 3-0 when he ended the game.

Nadal wil now take on sixth seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who edged out the second seeded Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1).

"He's playing very well today," said Nadal, who holds a 4-2 advantage over Davydenko in their previous meetings. "He has a lot of rhythm, and he's playing with a lot of intensity. It's going to be a really tough match."

Nadal only lost four points in the five service games he played against Lopez in the semifinal, which he gained when Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia retired with a left hip injury.

The Spaniard is looking for his sixth title of the year, and the first since returning from an injury layoff to recover from knee tendinitis, which prevented him from defending his Wimbledon title. He also struggled with a stomach muscle injury at the U.S. Open.

"I'm in a final and that's very important," Nadal said. "It's my first final since I've been back and that's a good result for me."

Davydenko reached his fourth final of the year after a hard-fought match that lasted more than three hours. The Russian dominated the final tiebreaker, racing out to a 5-0 lead before sealing the win.