Shanghai  - Spaniard Feliciano Lopez exploded into form Friday for the best showing of a so-so season as the 41st-ranked outsider knocked ninth seed Robin Soderling out in the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

Lopez, the 28-year-old left-hander who lost in six consecutive first rounds from Wimbledon until Shanghai, will face compatriot Rafael Nadal if the top seed beats Ivan Ljubicic in a later quarter-final.

Soderling led 4-2 in the opening set against Lopez before the Spaniard reversed that trend. The winner broke three times and profited from 30 Soderling unforced errors.

Soderling, in the chase for one of the three remaining spots at November's season-ending World Tour Finals in London, was unable to add to his total and remained on provisional eighth in the field.

But closing fast just 20 points adrift is Nikolay Davydenko, who passed two rivals thanks to a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 win over Radek Stepanek.

Davydenko, seeded sixth, has renewed his steady form after missing several months with foot and ankle problems during the first half of the season.

He moved past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez to place provisional ninth.

Davydenko, aged 28, next faces either second seed Novak Djokovic or French eighth seed Gilles Simon, winner last month in Bangkok.

The Russian said he had his problems against Stepanek. "He really changed his game in the second set, making his returns better and hitting well from the baseline. He's very unpredictable, you never know what he will do in a match."(dpa)