Double-faults blight Davydenko victory

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 22:00

SECOND seed Nikolay Davydenko remained on course for his fifth ATP Tour title of the season with a straight-sets win over Argentine Juan Monaco at the Valencia Open yesterday. The 28-year-old Russian took one hour and 42 minutes to see off the world No30, coming through 6-3, 7-5.

It was not all plain sailing for the world No7 though, who committed four double-faults in the second set. He now takes on Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the quarter-finals.

In the first match of the day, Russia's Mikhail Youzhny overcame Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas in three sets. The 27-year-old world No23 won a topsy-turvy match 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Youzhny will now take on Frenchman Gilles Simon, seeded fifth, in the last eight, while Scotland's Andy Murray, the top seed, was due to face Argentina's Leonardo Mayer later last night.

Meanwhile, a rampant Novak Djokovic put in a sublime performance in the second round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, as he emphatically brushed aside world No59 Jan Hernych 6-0, 6-0.

The dominant Serb remains well on track for a Sunday night showdown against home favourite and successive three-time winner of this event, Roger Federer, and will come up against either Stanislas Wawrinka or Jarko Nieminen next.

Shahar Peer will play top seed Marion Bartoli for a place in the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Tournament of Champions in Bali after the Israeli defeated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.

The world No32, who had initially faced concerns over whether she would be granted a visa to enter Indonesia, the world's most populous muslim state, secured a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) Group A win over Rybarikova.

France's Aravane Rezai battled back from 5-2 down in the second set to secure her place in the semi-finals with a 6-3, 7-5 Group D win over Melinda Czink, of Hungary.