Australian Open . `` This is a really tough tournament and it 's not easy to reach the final here , '' last year 's French Open finalist told the ATP Web site . `` I 'm playing better with every match , so I 'm very happy . I 've had a lot of tough matches with Nikolay in the past few years . He 's one of the best players in the world , so it means I am playing great tennis to beat him . My confidence is up and I 'm looking forward to the final . '' Meanwhile , second seed Fernando Verdasco reached the final of the SAP Open in San Jose in the United States after beating Uzbekistan 's Denis Istomin on Saturday . The Spaniard won 6-3 2-6 6-4 to set up a clash with the top seed Andy Roddick who overcame a first set loss and two tiebreakers to defeat fellow American Sam Querrey 2-6 , 7-6 -LRB- 5 -RRB- , 7-6 -LRB- 4 -RRB- . Top seed Elena Dementieva will play Lucie Safarova in Sunday 's Paris Indoor Open final on the women 's WTA Tour circuit . Russian world
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- World No. 2 Novak Djokovic suffered a shock defeat by sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny in the semifinals of the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Saturday . The Serbian , who had not played since Thursday after being handed a walkover in his quarterfinal , lost 7-6 -LRB- 7-5 -RRB- 7-6 -LRB- 8-6 -RRB- to the Russian despite saving two match-points . Youzhny , who won the Dutch indoor tournament in 2007 , will play second seed Robin Soderling in Sunday 's final after the world No. 8 edged out sixth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 -LRB- 7-3 -RRB- 6-4 . Youzhny will have the chance to avenge his compatriot 's defeat as he seeks to improve his 1-1 career record against Soderling . The signs are good for the world No. 20 , who also defeated Djokovic in the semifinals three years ago . The Muscovite will bid to win his sixth ATP Tour title , having won one in each of the past three seasons . Soderling has bounced back from a poor start to the season that saw the Swede lose in the first round of his first two tournaments in 2010 , including the