MASTERS CUP TENNIS Gaudio rallies to gain semifinal against Federer

Gaston Gaudio faces a big challenge against the two-time defending champion.
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Gaston Gaudio didn't want to think about Roger Federer.
He just wanted to savor the feeling of qualifying for the Masters Cup semifinals after saving three match points in a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Fernando Gonzalez.
"First, I would love to enjoy this situation," Gaudio said.
But the Argentine knows there's a gulf in class between 13th-ranked Gonzalez and two-time defending champion Federer. The Swiss player is two wins shy of matching John McEnroe's 21-year-old mark (82-3) for a season's best winning percentage.
"Playing against him is always so difficult and tough," Gaudio said on the eve of his match against top-ranked Federer. "Even worse playing on this surface. So tomorrow's going to be pretty difficult for me."
The 2004 French Open champion is playing on his least-favored surface -- indoor hardcourt -- and had less than 22 hours to recover between his last round-robin match at Qi Zhong Stadium and his meeting today with Federer.
Still, Gaudio said, it's better than the alternative he was facing when Gonzalez was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set.
"I was thinking the same as everybody here: that I was done," Gaudio said. "I don't know how I came back, but finally I did it."
Four-game winning streak
Gaudio broke back in the ninth game, then saved three match points as he rallied from 15-40 in the 10th. That was part of a four-game winning streak that changed the complexion of the match.
"There was a lot of situations, so emotional," Gaudio said. "It was fun for the crowd -- not fun for me. But I'm so happy about the win."
Russian Nikolay Davydenko didn't drop a set as he rounded off the Gold Group matches with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Mariano Puerta. Davydenko faces David Nalbandian, who placed second to Federer in the Red Group, in the other semifinal.
Argentina, which did not have a player in the semifinals of the year-end championships since Guillermo Vilas in 1982, now has two in the last four: Gaudio and Nalbandian.
It could have been different.
Three times Gonzalez was only a point away from being the first alternate player to reach the semifinals at the season-ending event.
Instead, he slipped to 0-4 in head-to-heads with Gaudio.
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