What’s on Kolya’s hook?

What’s on Kolya’s hook?

The Russian team beat the French in the Davis Cup quarterfinal to a great extent thanks to our new leader – 24 year old Nikolay Davydenko. Roland Garros semifinalist, a player who stormed into Top 10 this year brought two points out of two for his team. The stadium roared “Kolya we’re with you!!!!” (ermmm I seriously think this girl was sitting close to LOL because that’s exactly what I was shouting all the time ROTFL) and Richard Gasquet after the match said that he was beaten by a player with “no weaknesses”. Kolya shook his head in response and said that he didn’t do anything extraordinary, he just fought for every single ball since it wasn’t only him he was playing for, it was for a whole team. It was Nikolay’s debut as a team leader and he didn’t let the guys down despite a right wrist injury.

“When Marat is in the team he acts like a 100% leader – he gives it all he has. I was first against France and that means injury or no injury, I had to fight till the end, I wanted to show my best tennis to my home crowd”.

Nikolay appeared on the team only two years ago. In that period of time the journalists seem to have found out everything about him. Where he lives, where he trains, about his brother Edward and a nephew Phillip and even about the fact that Kolya knows how to make house wine. Lately he’s been taken by a new hobby:

“I’ve become a true fisherman, fish for trout in Germany. This is the best rest ever for me. Excellent stuff! My Dad got me hooked up on this, who is a fishing addict. After Roland Garros him and my Mum came to visit. Not far from the town where we live there is a mountain river, so we went to try for a couple of hours. Caught a trout, which weighed about half a kilo. Cooked it at home and it was delicious, never ate anything tastier! My nephew never used to eat fish before, and suddenly his appetite had woken up too: it’s obviously more fun, you eat what you catch yourself. As soon I get home, I will buy a pair of big boots, so that I can get deeper into the water. I am gonna go fishing as much as I can now. How could I never have done this before? It’s because of the amount of tournaments, I never have time for anything. It’s really funny now, but when I came to Wimbledon, first thing I did was ask if there was much fish in rivers there, I regretted that I didn’t take my fishing rod with me. While I worked my butt off at Wimbledon my brother and my nephew managed to catch 5 fish without me! I was so jealous!


Edward coaches Phillip since he was very young, just like he did with me. That’s why he doesn’t go to tournaments with me very much now, just the very important ones, he dedicates a lot of time to his son. Without him I already managed to win a tournament in St. Peltzen. I do miss him a lot however. For example, I used to love training with my brother on the first days of the tournament, get used to the courts, the balls. If you have to make arrangements with some of the players, you have to tune up to them and that’s a bit uncomfortable. During the tournament you also want to brush up your techniques, to play slowly, no hurry, you cannot do that with players. On the whole though, I can’t complain, this year has been successful for me so far. Quarterfinals in Australia, a semifinal in Paris, a four-set win over Coria, which I consider to be the best match of my career. Some people brought me videotapes with matches recorded, so I have what to watch.

And now two victories for the Russian team in Moscow. As fishermen say if there is biting, you have luck on your hook.

Tennis+ Magazine Russia
Thanks to annie!!!