Federer reaches first final of 2008 in clay event

LISBON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- World number one Roger Federer Saturday reached his first final of the year on his least favorite surface and set up a meet with Nikolay Davydenko at the clay event of Estoril Open.

The Swiss recovered from a set down to beat unseeded German Denis Gremelmayr 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, while the second-seeded Russian Davydenko won over France's Florent Serra 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal earlier.

"I think Denis played a fantastic match," said Federer, who is recovering from his worst start to a season since 2000.

The 26-year-old top seed, a 12 times grand slam winner, struggled to counter Gremelmayr's powerful baseline game, but hit 10 aces in windy conditions to move closer to claiming his 54th ATP title.

His final rival Davydenko, ranked world number four, has been reckoned the hottest to challenge Federer after winning his last 11 matches.

On the women's part, the final of the Estoril Open WTA event will pit second-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko and Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic, both previous winners at the Portuguese tournament.