Davydenko puts Russia in control in Amsterdam

Davydenko puts Russia in control in Amsterdam

By Theo Ruizenaar

AMSTERDAM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - World number six Nikolay Davydenko eased aside Melle van Gemerden 7-6 7-5 6-4 to give Russia a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands in their Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on Friday.

Earlier, Dmitry Tursunov beat Raemon Sluiter 6-7 6-4 7-6 7-6.

Davydenko conceded an early break in a sloppy start against a player ranked 130 places below him but recovered to force a tiebreak and sealed it with his fourth set point.

A service to break to love in the 11th game set up the second set and another break at the start of the third proved enough to clinch the match.

"Van Gemerden surprised me with his power and gave me some problems, especially in the first set," Davydenko told reporters.

"But against players who use so much power, you know they can't maintain that for three sets."

EARLY BREAK

Tursunov dropped the opening set against Sluiter, despite conceding only four points on his serve before the tiebreak which he lost 7-2.

Russian Tursunov, who was picked ahead of Igor Andreev and Mikhail Youzhny, broke early in the second set before going on to level the match.

The 50th-ranked Tursunov also broke in the third set and had four set point opportunities, only for the fighting Sluiter to force another tiebreak.

This time it was Tursunov who held firm, taking it 7-5 to move ahead. Sluiter was close to taking the match into a fifth set when he was up 5-3 in the fourth set tiebreak before his opponent reeled off four successive points.

"We picked Tursunov because he had beaten Sluiter in the past," said Davydenko.

"We knew Sluiter was a good Davis Cup player and feared that a bit but Tursunov did very well today and gave a great performance."

Russia, winners in 2002, have only once failed to get past the World Group opening round in the last seven years.

Updated on Friday, Feb 10, 2006 2:13 pm EST

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