Rafael Nadal battled past Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (3), 6-7 (8), 6-4 in the Rome Masters semi-finals on Saturday and broke John McEnroe's record for most victories on one surface.
McEnroe had a 75-match winning streak on indoor-carpet from September 1983 to April 1985.
"It's nice to have these records but the important thing for me is to be in the final right now," Nadal said after his 76th successive win on clay.
"The guy seems like he's unbeatable right now," said McEnroe, who was at the Foro Italico for a seniors tournament. "Doesn't he ever have a bad day or a headache once in a while or something? His intensity and quality level is just amazing."
Nadal dropped his serve while serving for each of the first two sets and lost the second set -- the first time he has lost a set in 14 matches on clay this season. But the Spaniard eventually wore out fourth-ranked Davydenko to close out the match in 3 hours, 38 minutes.
"He tried for every ball -- it's amazing," Davydenko said. "It was my body. My shoulder was tired. I'm not like Nadal physically. I need to improve physically. My tennis is not so bad."
In the final, Nadal will meet sixth-ranked Fernando Gonzalez, who ended Filippo Volandri's impressive run with a 6-1, 6-2 rout.
Nadal beat Gonzalez in the quarter-finals in Rome last year but Gonzalez holds a 3-1 edge in career meetings, including a win in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January. Gonzalez went on to lose the final in the year's first major to Roger Federer.
"It's going to be an interesting final. It's always very difficult against Gonzalez," Nadal said. "I'm a little bit tired after today. The important thing for me is to play my best tennis. I can lose, but I'll have my chances."
Nadal is attempting to become the first player to win this French Open warmup three consecutive times. Thomas Muster and Jaroslav Drobny -- a Czech player in the 1950s -- also won in Rome three times, but not in succession.
Nadal lost his serve at love when he served for the first set at 5-4 and saved a set point trailing 6-5 with a risky drop shot. Davydenko ran the drop shot down but couldn't get it back over the net.
In the first-set tiebreaker, Nadal took control when Davydenko missed four forehands on the first four points.
Nadal uncharacteristically committed 19 unforced errors to Davydenko's 14 in the first set.
Nadal increased his consistency in the second set but again lost his serve at love when he served for the match at 5-3.
In the second-set tiebreaker, Davydenko required six set points before Nadal scooped down low for a backhand that sailed long.
After exchanging breaks early in the final set, Nadal broke Davydenko at love to take a 5-4 lead and dropped to the clay in relief when Davydenko's forehand return sailed long on his first match point in the next game.
Volandri upset top-ranked Roger Federer on Thursday and also knocked out No. 12 Tomas Berdych and No. 13 Richard Gasquet this week, but the Italian wild card was never in contention against Gonzalez.
Gonzalez staved off a break point in the opening game of the match, broke in the following game and never looked back.
"The first two games were fundamental," Volandri said.
Gonzalez picked on Volandri's backhand and took some speed off his first serve to make sure he got it in on the important points. The Chilean also mixed in an occasional serve and volley and flattened out his ground strokes for winners to end several long rallies.
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