Nikolay Davydenko will line up Saturday against rested and refreshed holder Rafael Nadal in Saturday's semi-final at the Barcelona Open as the Russian tries to invade the Spaniard's clay playground.
Top seed and crowd hero Nadal had a light hit on Friday after earning a quarter-final walkover when prospective opponent David Nalbandian announced a day earlier that he would not play due to a hip injury which will require a scan Third seed Davydenko, by contrast, put in the hard yards on the dirt as he wore down Czech Radek Stepanek 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-2 in two-and-a-quarter hours.
Former Barcelona semi-finalist Davydenko does not rate his chances of advancing too highly against a top seed riding a 23-match victory run on clay. "Say the odds are 100 percent for Rafa," the Russian joked when pressed to predict how he would fare against the winner of the last four editions at the Real club. "You never know about tomorrow, but I'm not gonna worry about it now. I'm going to relax and enjoy my life." After missing several months of play, including the Australian Open due to a heel injury, Davydenko is easing back into competition.
The Barcelona week is only his second back on a regular schedule and his progress is rapid after a Monte Carlo quarter-final last week. Nadal leads Davydenko 3-2, winning both of their meetings on clay. But the Russian came up victorious in their last match in the quarter-finals of Paris Bercy last autumn when the Spaniard quit with knee pain trailing 6-1.