David Ferrer of Spain got his third straight win yesterday at the Shanghai Masters Cup to qualify for the semifinals, but it was a dazzling battle between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, two of the most entertaining players on the tour, that stole the spotlight.

The seventh-seeded Ferrer disposed of French debutant Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-1 in the final Gold Group match and will head into Saturday's semifinals as the group's winner. Their match lasted a brief 59 minutes, 45 minutes shorter than the Nadal-Djokovic match, which the world No 2 Spaniard won 6-4, 6-4.

Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during the match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia at the Masters Cup tennis tournament in Shanghai yesterday. Nadal won 6-4, 6-4.

Nadal snagged the Gold Group's other semifinal berth with a 2-1 win-loss record while Djokovic - a pre-tournament favorite - will leave Shanghai without winning a single match, or even a set.

It was another memorable battle between Nadal and Djokovic, as the duo put on some unbelievable rallies late in the second set.

But Nadal, winner of 23 career titles including three consecutive French Open crowns, showed he was a class above, proving to be better mentally prepared than his opponent. Nadal always found the winning shot at the crucial points, committing only 15 unforced errors and taking three of eight break points, compared to Djokovic's 33 errors and only one break out of four.

"I played a very, very good match, the best match here and one of the best of the indoor season," Nadal said.

The unusual maturity of the 21-year-old has impressed Djokovic, one year Nadal's junior.

"He is exceptional," the Serb said. "He matured much faster than his generation."

In only three years, Nadal has been able to lift himself from relative obscurity to the world No 2, becoming a three-time Grand Slam winner and Open-era record holder with an 81-game winning streak on clay in the process.

That has separated him from the rest of the 20-something generation, putting him in a higher class with the likes of Roger Federer, one of the best tennis players in history.

"If we are talking about his maturity on the court, he reached a very high level of tennis already at the age of 16, 17," Djokovic sighed. "You do not see many players like that reaching second place of the world already at the age of 18, 19."

The Serb, reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open this year, has been trying to close the distance with the world's top two players. He had a breakthrough in August by beating both of them en route to winning the Montreal Masters Series, where he got his only win against Federer and one of his two against Nadal.

"I have learned a lot this year, especially against those two players," he said. "I am No 3 in the world but still I need a little something more, probably in my physical strength, to try to be consistent with the results on all the surfaces because we all know how dominant those two players are."

(China Daily November 16, 2007)