Davydenko puts past behind, looks ahead

Davydenko puts past behind, looks ahead

By Dustin DowMASON -

There's no magic formula for success on the ATP Tour. The simplest way to the top is to just win matches.Nikolay Davydenko was an obscure Russian tennis player with an overall career record of well below .500 until this season. But with a 43-20 record in 2005, Davydenko is suddenly No. 7 in the world and playing today in the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters."You can't win everything, but you can improve," said Davydenko, whose ranking has improved steadily the past five years. "You can play good, even to come into the semis, quarters, finals - why not?"A semifinalist in the French Open, Davydenko, 24, will play No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt tonight for a chance to reach the semifinals here.Davydenko's breakthrough season, however, has not been entirely blissful. Last month, the ATP cleared him of a match-fixing allegation that arose after he retired from a match against a good friend, Sargis Sargsian, when Davydenko was leading 6-1, 1-0.Gambling Web site Onthepunt.com reported that a bet of 4,000 euros was made on the underdog Sargsian five minutes before the match began, and that the bet was traced to a computer at the players' hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland.The Web site also reported, "Because of irregularities surrounding previous matches involving Sargsian, many bookmakers had not offered odds on the match."Davydenko, however, is 10-3 since losing that match July 4 and said the effects of dealing with the situation are minimal."I don't know," Davydenko said. "Maybe it's supposed to make me feel different, but it's everything the same. This year I play better, not like last year. I'm not thinking about why. It's not so easy to tell how something affects you mentally in your mind. All you're thinking about is the match."