Davydenko continued his late season mastery of the world’s top players with a surprising win over a very sharp Nadal. Nikolay is far and away the hottest player on the tour. It seems like the winner of the Melbourne title will have to play through the surging Russian force to claim the title. These days, that is no easy feat. In the wake of his sweep at the year-ending Barclay’s World Tour Finals, the Qatar champion has now won nine consecutive matches. He is only the second player in history to defeat Roger Federer and Nadal in successive tournaments.

With the win, Davydenko becomes just the fifth active player to win at least 20 WTP events. He is the 38th player since 1968 to accomplish the feat. Impressively, he has established himself as a clutch player having won his last 6 ATP World Tour finals.

The way the day started, he seemed an unlikely winner. Nadal stormed out of the warm-up, winning the first seven games of the match. Nadal’s play in this stretch was impeccable.

Down 0-1 in the second, the third seeded Russian came into form to gain a 5-4 advantage. But, Rafa was ready and sprung the break to knot the set. In the tiebreaker, Nikolay charged the net and either hit winning volleys or forced Nadal errors to jump ahead 4-1. After several breaks, he sealed the set with a backhand winner.

Nadal got a quick break in the final set to go ahead 2-1. Davydenko broke back at game 6 and won the match with a break in the 10th game. On paper, the final result reads 0-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4. In reality, the win is bigger than that. A bit on wonder must be on the minds of the world’s two top seeds. “Who is that bald, masked man?”

Despite the loss, Rafa was pleased with his play. Always selling his game, Rafael Nadal wants the tour to know that when e played well, he played very, very well. “Sure, it’s better to win, especially when you have the chance. But, that’s tennis and probably this match I needed a bit more calm. But playing at this level, I am sure to win a title… I don’t know if I will win Australia, but I think I’m in a very, very good way.”

In his heart, he may have seen enough of Davydenko for a long while.

Roddick Serves to Victory

When the outcome seemed inevitable, strange things happened. Yet, Andy Roddick persevered in a match that provided huge momentum swings and tow tiebreakers. When it comes to tiebreakers, the hard serving Andy Roddick dials up his big weapon and goes to work, just as he did in the finals o the ATP World Tour Championsho0m in Brisbane.

With a 7-6 (2), 7-6(7) straight set win over defending champion Radef Stepanek, Roddick served notice that he has healed from the hip injury that sidelined him for five weeks after his heartbreaking loss to Roger Federer at Wimbledon.

The first set was balanced. Each player held serve throughout. With Stefanek serving, Roddick had a set point at 4-5 but Rafek was able to hold. In the tiebreaker, Roddick har4d serving and aggressive play led to many unforced errors by Stefanek.

In the second set, Roddick continued the momentum, jumping out to a 4-1 lead. Again, Stepanek elevated his game and stopped pressing shots. He climbed ahead at 5-6 and had a break point for the set. Roddick blazed a first serve winner to stem the tide and force a tiebreaker.

Again Roddick started fast and stormed to a 6-1 lead. Again Radek bounced back only to be undone by a fault at match point.

With then win, the American moves ahead of Lleyton Hewitt in third place among active players with 20 or more wins. He is the only active player to have won at least one ATP title each of the last ten years. Play was not on a par with Nadal and Davydenko, but it was a vintage Roddick win. Andy does not lose matches he should win and he wins a few when he is the underdog. That is a formula for success.

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Now you’re ready to enter the current existence of one Nikolay Davydenko.

In two days in Doha, Qatar, Nikolay Davydenko – fresh off his late-November run to the championship of the ATP World Tour Finals in London – started the 2010 season with a bang. The Russian – ranked sixth in the world – defeated Roger Federer in Friday’s semifinals by a 6-4, 6-4 score, and then – on Saturday – followed that tremendous result by outlasting Rafael Nadal, 0-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4, to win the Qatar Open and achieve a very impressive distinction.

Davydenko’s win two months ago in London was built on the strength of wins over Federer (in a thrilling three-set semifinal) and Nadal (in the round-robin portion of the event). By slaying the two giants of men’s tennis in yet another tournament, Davydenko joined David Nalbandian as the only other man to beat Federer and Nadal in the same tournament on two separate occasions. Nalbandian turned the trick at the Madrid Masters and the Paris Masters in 2007.

Each of Davydenko’s crowning conquests offered something amazing for a tennis connoisseur. In the Friday win over Federer, Davydenko converted each of his first 27 first serves, an absolutely astounding statistic. Davydenko’s serve has never been thought of as a weapon, but its consistency has soared in the Russian’s recent runs to tournament championships. The least-publicized top 10 player in men’s tennis is producing such elevated stuff that it’s becoming hard to ignore him any longer. A man nicknamed “Kolya the Obscure” on tennis blogs is decisively and definitively stepping out of the shadows. If his win over Federer was felt to be something of a fluke, Kolya proved otherwise in a gritty display the following day against Nadal in the Qatar Open’s championship match.

As the scoreline shows, Davydenko got blitzed and bewildered by an on-song Nadal in the first set. The Spaniard served up a Saturday bagel to Davydenko, giving the impression that the Russian had used up his best tennis during his foiling of Federer on Friday.

But if anyone had begun to count him out, Davydenko responded with more of the quality that marked a memorable week in Qatar. Davydenko carried the play in the second set, and although his nerves failed him at times, the No. 6 player in the world was able to save two match points and take a fiercely-contested tiebreak. The third set was competitive as well, but in the end, it was the machine-like consistency and agile footwork of the Russian which won the battle. By robbing  Rafael Nadal of time and preventing the No. 2 player in the world from maintaining his first-set comfort zone, Davydenko worked his way to the winner’s circle once again.

Could the 2010 Australian Open be Nikolay Davydenko’s coming-out party on the Grand Slam stage? If he plays the way he did in Qatar – and for that matter, in London as well – it will be very hard to deny this unheralded but gifted player his precious place in the bright sunshine of championship glory.

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