Federer books place in final

World number one Roger Federer reached his second successive French Open final after digging deep to defeat plucky Russian Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets.

Federer, the top seed, claimed a hard-fought 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (9-7) win in a little more than three hours on Philippe Chatrier Court.

He will now play either reigning champion Rafael Nadal or sixth seed Novak Djokovic in the showpiece.

Fourth seed Davydenko played excellently overall, and had 17 break points in the match, but often choked when it really mattered.

He forced 11 break points on Federer's first four service games, but only took one of them - in the very first game at the fifth attempt.

Federer, on the other hand, had just two break opportunities in the first set and took them both.

The first came in the eighth game, the Swiss breaking to love when Davydenko was long with a backhand to draw level at 4-4, and he could not have timed his second break better - on his first set point in the 12th game.

Davydenko's head did not drop and he was the first to break in the second set, in the ninth game, after a fine backhand down the line.

But serving for the set at 5-4 up, Davydenko choked and missed a backhand to gift Federer an immediate break back. He eventually won the tie-break on his third set point.

Davydenko opened up a 5-2 lead in the third set - but Federer again fought his way back and edged another tie-break.