Roger Federer faces Nikolay Davydenko in the first semi-final, a man he’s never lost to in twelve matches.

Watch Federer v Davydenko live for free at bet365 > sports > live streaming tennis

Davydenko scraped into the semi-finals after a battling three set victory over Robin Soderling on Friday night. However the scheduling is not working in his favour as the late finish, leaves him little time to prepare for facing Federer on Saturday afternoon.

However, Davydenko has done extremely well to make this stage. He lost his opening match against Novak Djokovic in a close three setter but has since rebounded strongly and produced some sparkling displays with wins over Rafael Nadal and Soderling. In those two matches he’s emerged as a definite title contender with the rest of the field appearing to wane after the long season.

As well as Davydenko has played over the past few days, Federer will be a step up. The Swiss has beaten him four times in slams, three times denying him in semi-finals. Two years ago in Shanghai, Federer inflicted a crushing 6-4, 6-3 defeat on the Russian in the group stages of the Masters Cup.

Davydenko always seems to save something for this end of year showpiece. Twelve months ago he produced some of his best tennis of the season to reach the final. He is a durable character and despite his record against Federer, he will go in believing his has a chance, no doubt helped by the frailties the Swiss showed in his defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro on Thursday.

"All 12 times I was believing I can win [against Federer],” Davydenko said in his post match press conference. “Maybe I start to play better and Federer not so good, we'll see. I've played three great matches here and I would like to play the same way as today. I hope I can run well tomorrow and make no mistakes."

Federer is a commanding 2/7 favourite with Boylesports and should make the final given the way his game matches up against Davydenko who is 3/1 with Sky Bet.