Tennis: Former world number one and two-time defending champion Roger Federer has kept his Masters Cup bid alive by beating Radek Stepanek 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 in Shanghai and will meet Andy Murray on Friday after the Briton beat Gilles Simon this morning.
Federer was shocked by French world number nine Simon in Monday's red group opener, but remained in the hunt for a fifth Masters Cup triumph after downing late replacement Stepanek in one hour and 41 minutes.
Murray earlier beat Simon 6-4 6-2 to secure his place in the semi-finals and US Open champion Federer needs to beat the Scot to advance at the top of the group ahead of the world number four.
Stepanek had only found out on Wednesday he would be playing the world number two after American Andy Roddick was forced to pull out due to an ankle injury.
When he turned up at the stadium without a racquet and his contact lenses, before borrowing socks from Murray, the writing looked to be on the wall.
After only two minutes as Stepanek double-faulted at 15-40 in the first game but Federer failed to take advantage as the Czech broke back to level at 2-2.
In the tie-break, Federer claimed back-to-back mini-breaks to take a 4-1 lead, and despite Stepanek pulling back one, the 13-time grand slam winner served out to take the first set.
The second set also looked destined for a tie-break until Federer broke in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the match.
Stepanek was able to produce a break of his own, but Federer raced into a 0-40 lead at 5-4 and secured the win as the Czech again double-faulted with the pressure on.
Federer revealed after the match he was unable to practice on Tuesday due to a stomach upset, but remained confident he would again complete a turnaround and qualify for the semi-finals after losing his opening round-robin match.
Last year Federer lost to Fernando Gonzalez before securing a fifth Masters Cup title with wins over Nikolay Davydenko, Roddick, Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer.
"I've always had a lot of success in Masters Cup play," said the 27-year-old Swiss.
"The situation I'm in is in my control. If I win (against Murray), I'm through. That's the similar situation that I was in last year, except last year I was through before my match in the end so it was kind of a funny turn of events.
"This time we will see. It's important to rest up and see what happens against Murray because only a good performance will do the job."