December 2,2009
ATP tennis- Nikolay Davydenko takes the Barclays World Tour Finals title
By Stephen Lars
Since turning pro in 1999, Nikolay Davydenko has won over 18 titles; despite the fact that he has had some success in the Grand Slams (reaching semifinals in both the French and US Opens, and a 4th place in Wimbledon) this Sundays’ victory over Juan Martin del Potro in the World Tour Finals Championship Game is still his biggest win ever. In what might very well be the best week of his career, Davydenkdo defeated every 2009 Grand Slam Champion to take the World Tour Finals title.
With a powerful and consistent serve that allowed him to win all but 5 serve points in the first set and 8 in the second, Davydenko, beat the young Argentinean tennis star. For what we have seen in the last two seasons, the Russian is just one of those players who are able to keep strong at the end of the season, right when most other players in the Tour are either injured or frankly a bit tired. Last year, at the Tour Finals in Shangai he had to content himself with second place after being defeated by Novak Djokovic at the season finale. But things looked a little brighter for him this time around.
In the semifinals Davydenko faced quite a challenge. He had to defeat no other then Roger Federer, and the odds were certainly not on his side. For starters, Federer had won every one of the 12 matches they had ever disputed. The Swiss was the number 1 ranked player in the tournament, while out of the 8 players in the Round Robin, Davydenko was ranked 8th. But he played a smart game, taking advantage of his powerful serve to defeat Federer 6-2, 4-6, 5-2. At the end of the game, Federer confessed that his opponent took the key points of the match.
“It was due to happen, sooner or later. Every friend and fan that cares about my tennis was waiting for the moment when I could defeat Federer,” said Davydenko at Saturday’s press conference.
In the other Semifinal, del Potro played Robin Soderling in an intense game, dominated by the strong serves executed by both power players. Soderling was very disappointed when in the third set he lost 7-6 to del Potro. The last few points in the match were quite intense. First Del Potro came from the bottom of the scoreboard, dominating most of the games in which he served. He rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the last set to take the match. He is the second Argentinean to reach the title match since David Nalbandian defeated Federer back in 2005.
Del Potro faced Davydenko in the finals with a 1-2 career record. The Russian won the last two of their encounters, the last one in two straight sets, during last year’s Round Robin at this same tournament. Del Potro advanced in group A by the smallest margin possible. His three set win over Federer secured him a spot in the semifinals. Del Potro has proven to be quite an aggressive and spectacular player in the hard surfaces: 41 of his 54 YTD wins have been over hard courts. But even that impressive record was not enough to claim victory.
Del Potro was able to save two break points in the 5th game of the 3rd set, and kept strong in the next game when he earned his first two break point chances in the game. But Davydenko was right on top of his game, and he denied Del Potro the chance to close his losing margin.
Davydenko, with his forehand, earned three break points in the 9th game. The Russian’s 6th ace in the 10th game brought the championship point to wrap up the match after 84 minutes of a vibrant game before 17,500 spectators in centre field at the 02 arena, in London.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily ATP Masters Series tennis games and other sports news and the sports book industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.