Ferrer fights past Lopez to reach Shanghai final

Oct 15, 2011, 11:37 GMT

Shanghai - David Ferrer completed a third consecutive comeback from a set down to reach the final of the Shanghai Masters on Saturday as he defeated fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-3.

World number five Ferrer will be playing a Shanghai final for the second time after losing the 2007 Masters Cup year-end event to Roger Federer at the Qi Zhong arena.

Ferrer will compete for his third trophy of the season after Auckland and Acapulco when he plays the winner from defending champion Andy Murray and Japan's Kei Nishikori.

Fourth-ranked Murray is bidding for an unprecedented hat-trick of Asian titles after winning in Bangkok and Tokyo over the last two weeks.

Ferrer, the Spanish number two behind Rafael Nadal who qualified into the season-wrapup field next month in London, has made fightbacks a habit this week as he recovered from first-set losses to beat Juan Carlos Ferrero and Andy Roddick in the previous rounds.

Lopez came to the court with a 6-1 lead in the all-Iberian series, But Lopez, ranked 28th, had also lost his 11 matches against Top 5 players, with Ferrer now making that a dozen.

The match was the first time that two Spaniards (not including Nadal) have made the semis of a Masters 1000 event over the past half-decade (Ferrero and Tommy Robredo, Cincinnati, 2006).

Ferrer lead 4-1 in the opening-set tiebreaker before the 30-year-old Lopez managed to steal the set.

But that was only the start for Ferrer, a noted retriever with a never-say-die attitude which serves him well in marathons with his compatriots.

Lopez was broken in the third set for 5-3, with Ferrer serving out the victory on the second of three match points after two hours, 11 minutes.

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