LISBON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- World No. 1 Roger Federer and Nikolay Davydenko beat the rain to reach the semifinals of the Estoril Open clay court tennis tournament on Friday.

    Federer took advantage of two match interruptions caused by rain to beat Portuguese Frederico Gil 6-4 and 6-1.

    "Gil played an excellent set and a half," said Federer. "Thank God I could use the rain delays to improve my level of play."

Roger Federer of Switzerland returns a shot to Frederico Gil of Portugal during their match at the Estoril Open tennis tournament in Lisbon April 18, 2008.

The 26-year-old Swiss will meet unseeded Denis Gremelmayr of Germany on Saturday.

    In other match, Davydenko overcame Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-4, 5-7 and 6-3 in two and a half hour.

    "I was tired and really nervous because of the weather. Every point that I missed, every easy mistake, I was feeling more crazy," said Davydenko, the world number four and a winner in Estoril in2003.

    He will play Florent Serra of France in Saturday's other semi-final.