Unseeded American Mardy Fish’s improbable run at the 2008 Pacific Life Open continued on Saturday in Indian Wells as he defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 to book his place in Sunday’s title match.

To hoist his first career ATP Masters Series title, Fish will need to defeat his fourth Top 10 player this fortnight – World No. 3 and last year’s runner-up, Novak Djokovic, who got by defending champion Rafael Nadal by the same score.

Though Fish had spent six more hours on court than Federer en route to the semifinals – he had played five hours and 13 minutes in the last two rounds alone – Federer was the player who appeared more spent as he dropped his first service game.

Fish broke Federer twice more in the second set and earned two match points on the Swiss’ serve before Federer came back to force him to serve out the victory. Fish closed out the win in just over an hour, converting on his fourth match point to earn his first career win in six matches against Federer.

“I've always been the hunter almost my whole career, and I felt like I was always capable of beating everybody, but it was always here and there. It was always sporadically,” said the 26-year-old Fish, who handled World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets before posting consecutive wins in a third set tie-break over two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt and World No. 7 David Nalbandian.

“Putting together these wins this week gives me a heck of a lot of confidence to know that I can beat three guys in the Top 10 so far, and hopefully one more to go.”

Fish, who came into the tournament at No. 98 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, is the fifth-lowest ranked ATP Masters Series finalist and the second-lowest ranked to reach the tournament final. In his only other appearance in an ATP Masters Series final, five years ago in Cincinnati, he held two match points against Andy Roddick before losing in a third set tie-break.

“The guy has been top 20 before, and he's had big matches before,” said Federer, who has yet to reach a final this season. “Should have won Cincinnati a few years back beating Andy before he became No. 1. We know how good Mardy can be. Let's not talk about 98 in the world. We know he's way better than that.”

The five games won by Federer were his fewest in a match since he assumed the No. 1 ranking four years ago. It marked Federer's first loss to an American during that span – he had gone 41-0 since a defeat to Roddick in August 2003 when he was ranked No. 3.

In the day’s first semifinal, Djokovic avenged his 2007 final defeat to Nadal to go into the final for the second straight year without dropping a set through the tournament.

Djokovic, who had made a tentative showing in his first career ATP Masters Series final last year, played with confidence and experience this time around – the winner of two ATP Masters Series shields and a Grand Slam title since. After falling behind an early break, he roared back with three breaks of serve to close out the win in one hour and 27 minutes.

“I had some really important wins last year, which proved and made me believe that I can be one of the best players in the world and I have enough quality for that,” said the 20-year-old, who broke into the Top 10 for the first time in his career last year following his run in Indian Wells.

Nadal, who needed three sets to beat Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and World No. 10 James Blake, said: “I had very tough matches in the rounds before, very tight matches. You have to be 100%. He played less hours than me on court, easier matches, and he play better than me, so [I could] not do a thing.”

Djokovic defeated Fish in their only previous meeting, two years ago at the US Open. He said: “He's a really difficult opponent to play against. He’s obviously playing on top of his shape in this tournament, has nothing to lose.”