SHANGHAI, Nov 18: Argentine Gaston Gaudio fought off three match points to beat Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez 1-6 7-5 7-5 on Friday, completing the semifinal lineup at the year-ending Masters Cup.

Gaudio meets world number one Roger Federer on Saturday at the $4.45 million Shanghai event while Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko plays Argentine David Nalbandian in the other semifinal.

“I thought the same as everyone else — that I was done,” said Gaudio. “I almost lost the match three times. It was very emotional. Fun for the crowd but not for me.”

Last year’s French Open champion, Gaudio secured second place in the Gold Group behind Davydenko after digging himself out of a hole to maintain his mastery over Gonzalez.

Gaudio had won all three of his previous meetings with Gonzalez but was in real trouble at a set and 5-3 down and had to fend off three match points in the next game.

Crisis over, Gaudio went on to level the match and he secured the crucial break in the deciding set on a Gonzalez double-fault to go 6-5 up.

Gaudio’s place in the last four was sealed when the hard-hitting Chilean sent a wild forehand well wide after two hours, nine minutes.

The first Chilean to play at the season-ending championship since Marcelo Rios in 1998, Gonzalez cut short his holiday to fly to China as the second alternate.

His chance came when Andre Agassi pulled out with an ankle injury and Gonzalez promptly beat Argentina’s Mariano Puerta in his first match in midweek.

“I played a bad game when I was serving for the match (at 5-3).” said Gonzalez. “I only put one first serve in. I tried to go for it but I had a little bit of bad luck.”

Results: Nikolay Davydenko bt Mariano Puerta 6-3 6-2; Gaston Gaudio bt Fernando Gonzalez 1-6 7-5 7-5

Standing

P W L F A Pts

Red Group

1. Roger Federer 3 3 0 6 3 6

2. David Nalbandian 3 2 1 5 2 4

3. Ivan Ljubicic 3 1 2 3 4 2

4. Guillermo Coria 3 0 3 1 6 0

Gold Group

1. Nikolay Davydenko 3 3 0 6 0 6

2. Gaston Gaudio 3 2 1 4 3 4

3. Fernando Gonzalez 2 1 1 3 3 2

4. Mariano Puerta 3 0 3 1 6 0

5. Andre Agassi 1 0 1 0 2 0

—Reuters