Davydenko Takes Vengeance on Robredo for Safin

June 02, 2005

Davydenko Takes Vengeance on Robredo for Safin

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko reached semi-finals after defeating Marat Safin’s offender Tommy Robredo of Spain in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium June 1, 2005. Davydenko won 3-6 6-1 6-2 4-6 6-4.
-->Similar to the match played by Davydenko vs. Guillermo Coria (Arg), when he lost five games running, Davydenko was able to find his game only after the poor start. In the first set, Robredo was fast enough to hit all balls, while Davydenko lacked accuracy. In the second set, however, Davydenko started playing as he had never done before. After racing through the second and the third sets, probably the best sets in his life, Davydenko was leading 4:3 in the fourth one. The only thing he had to do was to be sure at his serve. No one knows how Robredo rediscovered the form but he broke the rhythm, having taken three games running.

In the decisive set, Robredo was psychologically stronger, buoyed up by the audience. Although Davydenko won the first two games, it looked as if Marat Safin’s history would repeat itself. Robredo took the break and equaled the sore. But Davydenko survived to lead 5:3 with the first match ball at Robredo’s serve. There were three match balls in the ninth game overall, all heroically opposed by the Spaniard. But Davydenko finally came through in the tense battle.

In the semi-finals, Davydenko will play Mariano Puerta who knocked out his fellow Argentine’s Guillermo Canas. -->

by www.kommersant.com
Russian Article as of June 02, 2005

The Court, the Ball and the Weather Prevented Nikolay Davydenko to Win

Aug. 26, 2005

The Court, the Ball and the Weather Prevented Nikolay Davydenko to Win

Nikolay Davydenko, seeded as number one in New Heaven tournament, lost in second round to Juan Ignacio Chela from Argentina. There was a loss among the Russian women as well. Elena Likhovtseva lost to one of the tournament favorites Amelie Mauresmo and dropped out of competition.

-->Nikolay Davydenko never felt comfortable playing in hard courts. He is much better on the clay. The last Davydenko results on hard shows that in New York he has to try really hard to repeat his achievement in Roland Garros, where he advanced to the semifinals. On the hard court tournaments in Montreal, Cincinnati and New Heaven, Davydenko made just to quarter finals. Only once, in Cincinnati, he lost to the serious adversary – Lleyton Hewitt from Australia. In other two mathes, Davydenko lost to Slovak Karol Beck and Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela. During the match with Chela Davydenko showed good tennis only by the end of the second set. However, by that time the match was lost.

Russian player did not put up the fight in the first part of the match. The score was 1 against 6. Davydenko tried to explain his bad fortune with three reasons: The courts and the balls are different in New Heaven than in Cincinnati,” the tennis player said. “And the weather is also a bit different here. I just could not get used to these conditions.” However, Davydenko was not too upset. “It is good that it happened here and not in US Open. Now, I’ll have more time to prepare myself to the main competition.”

In the mean time, Igor Andreev won in two sets over Olivier Roques. It was a tie-break twice and twice Russian player was taking over. He has a next match with Philipp Kohlschreiber from Germany.Elena Likhovtseva lost her match in the second round almost like Davydenko did –without much of a fight. However, her opponent was much more serious than Davydenko’s. It was Amelie Maurismo, who seeded in New Heaven as number two. The first number belongs to American Lindsay Davenport. -->
by www.kommersant.com
Russian Article as of Aug. 26, 2005

http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=500&id=603832

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."

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