Controversy has surrounded the ‘Iron Man’ of tennis for a few years. Twice he has been warned or given a code violation by an umpire for not performing at his best, or giving his best effort. He almost never complains, a trait of his tough Russian upbringing, but it has been obvious to many of the other tour players that he suffers from injuries, and tries to play through them. He rarely calls for an on court trainer, as permitted within the rules, but grits his teeth and continues to play. A year long inquiry was launched in 2007 by the ATP to determine whether Davydenko and Arguello were involved in match fixing during a match in Sopot in August of 2007. The heavily favoured Davydenko won the first set 6-2, lost the second and retired in the third citing an ankle injury. Prior to this match he had lost in the first round of three Australian open tournament, and had shown signs of being injured in the second set against Arguello, before chucking it in. All this would have gone unnoticed had it not been for some large bets that had been placed on Arguello to win. The odds on a win by Arguello must have been pretty high. Betfair a large British online betting company informed the ATP, a requirement under law, of the unusual amount of bets placed on Arguello and against Davydenko. The betting on the match was running about 10 times the norm for such an insignificant match, and this triggered an investigation by the Betfair officials. They claimed that 9 people in Russia had bet $1.5 million as part of a total $7 million bet on this match, 2 betters stood to gain $6 million from their wagers.

After an exhaustive inquiry all charges against the two players were dropped and both were cleared. Due to the irregularities of the betting, all bets were voided!

Somehow the Iron Man has retained his ranking throughout this whole controversy, and as the number 6 player in the world he will travel to Shanghai next month to participate in the season ending Masters Cup event. He will join Rafael Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Andy Roddick ( Andy clinched his spot just yesterday). Two more players will join this select group as the top eight players in the world. It could be Nalbandian, Juan Martin del Potro, Jo Wilfried Tsonga or Simon who makes it to Shanghai.

At 27 Nicolay Davydenko must be reaching the end of his career, and although he earned his nick name from playing so many events, the toll must be mounting on his body. It would be nice to think that with his head back into playing tennis and not distracted by threats of legal action, he can regain some of his old form that made him such a tough player to beat. He has won a total of 15 titles, and earned almost $9 million since he turned pro, and moved to Russia from Ukraine.

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