DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Defending champion Nikolay Davydenko of Russia yesterday beat a visibly ailing Rafael Nadal of Spain to reach the final of the Qatar Open.

Fourth-seeded Davydenko won 6-3, 6-2 in 84 minutes against an uncharacteristically slow and sluggish Nadal, who had a fever earlier this week.

The Russian, who beat Nadal in last year’s final in Doha, now leads the Spaniard 6-4 in head-to-head meetings on the ATP tour. He will look to add to his 20 career titles when he takes on second-ranked Roger Federer of Switzerland in the final today.

Two-time champion Federer reached the final by beating third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-3, 7-6 (2) earlier yesterday.

Davydenko, 29, beat Federer in the Qatar semi-finals last year before going on to win the trophy in the final against Nadal.

“I have surprised myself by reaching the final,” Davydenko said. “I did not expect to do this well. I am happy with my tennis but I can improve (my) fitness,” he said.

Davydenko said playing against Federer will be tough.

“I saw him playing today (yesterday). It looked as if he didn’t want to run and kept going for winners. Obviously, he is playing great. It will be tough. Everyday is a different day and let’s see how I wake up tomorrow (today),” he noted.

Nadal started brightly and in the third game the Spaniard fired a couple of double-handed shots from the baseline to go 2-1 up.

Davydenko broke back in the fourth as the top-seeded player started to show signs of fatigue during an error-prone game that included two long returns and a couple of unforced errors.

At 40-all in the eighth game, Davydenko broke Nadal for the second time in the set with two well-placed passing shots from the baseline to go 5-3 up and then held his serve by firing an ace to take the set.

Moments before the start of the second set, a tired-looking Nadal called for medical assistance and said.

When the match resumed, Davydenko broke Nadal in the first game of the second set with two forehand shots from the baseline to keep the pressure on.

In the third game, Davydenko broke the Spaniard for the second time in the set as Nadal regularly sprayed returns wide. Davydenko then opened a 5-0 cushion with another break of the Nadal serve before the Spaniard fought back to secure a break of his own.

The Russian closed out the set 6-2 to win the game.

Federer improved his record to 22-3 in Doha. He won the title in 2005 and 2006.

Although the second-seeded Federer was pushed to a tiebreaker in the second set, he said his early first-set break set the tone for the match.

Federer broke Tsonga in the second game of the first set with well-placed returns from the baseline as Tsonga struggled for rhythm. In the tiebreaker, the two were even at 2-all before Federer won the final five points.