Rafael Nadal has Number 1 Roger Federer's crown in his sights

With Federer a shock loser to Frenchman Julien Benneteau on Wednesday, a win for Nadal in Sunday's final would leave him just 305 points adrift of his arch rival with the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals to come in London later this month.

Nadal ended Federer's long reign as world No.1 after winning the Beijing Olympics last year, but Federer bounced back to regain the top spot in July after winning both the French Open and Wimbledon titles.

Nadal had needed to save five match points to get past Spanish compatriot Nicolas Almagro in a second round marathon of over three hours on Wednesday, and he wobbled again against Robredo, another countryman and a player he had beaten in straight sets in all five of their previous encounters.

Robredo even served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set but once again Nadal produced his best with his back to the wall to pull through by winning the final three games of the match.

"I was a little less lucky than yesterday," Nadal said. "He served for the match and it was in his hands, but I won anyway.

"I wasn't playing my best, but I played better than yesterday."

Joining Federer on the sidelines though was fourth seed Andy Murray who found two matches in one day too much to handle as he lost 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

The Scot, who won a season-best sixth title in Valencia on Sunday was taken to 1:45 am the night before in defeating James Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/4).

"I said last night it was going to be difficult to come back and feel 100 percent. It's obviously limited recovery after a long match," he said.

"But you still come out and you try to give it your best shot. Wasn't good enough."

Nikolay Davydenko meanwhile became the seventh player to qualify for the eight-man London Tour Finals despite losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to Sweden's Robin Soderling in another third round match.

Placed seventh in the standings coming into Paris, the loss briefly left the Russian at the mercy of the four other players in with a chance of playing in London from November 22-29.

But then Spain's Fernando Verdasco, who was holding on to the eighth and final slot, lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Marin Cilic of Croatia.

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