Lucky 13th arrives for Nikolay Davydenko

Published on Saturday 28 November 2009 19:57

NIKOLAY Daydenko is the tennis world's most highly-ranked obscurity. He has the look of an unconvincing Bond villain, and is best known for being the subject of an inquiry into a betting scandal.

The 28-year-old was cleared of the charges, but mud stuck, and he has remained unloved by the vast majority of the sport's supporters.

That may be about to change. Davydenko's 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Roger Federer in yesterday's semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour finals in London – arguably the finest win of his career – could just convince fans to warm to him.

It was Davydenko's first victory over the world No 1 at the 13th time of asking, and was achieved in some style. The Russian had only 15 hours to recover from his Group B win over Robin Soderling, but he showed no more than a hint of tiredness late on in the match.

He also showed more than a hint of mental toughness. Having taken an opening set against Federer for the first time, he could not stop the Wimbledon champion from levelling at a set apiece, and at times in the third set bore the expression of a man who felt that the fates were once more conspiring against him. But he held on, most impressively in the final game itself, when he saved a break point before wrapping up the win in an hour and 55 minutes.

Delighted and not a little relieved to have recorded a win at last against the only top-ten rival he had not previously beaten, Davydenko admitted he had mused about the possibility of flying home then going on holiday today.

Instead, he will be back for this afternoon's final against Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated Soderling in three sets in the second semi last night.

"I think all my family, everybody who support me, wait for this moment when I beat Federer," he said. "I was thinking it was coming maybe in 2010 or 11. But in 2009, at the end of the season, it's a good feeling. I was thinking, OK, I'm losing, tomorrow go home, next day already the Maldives. That's really my mind. Really don't care. I have no pressure. I don't think now I'm No1 because I beat Federer. But I know now if I beat everyone then I can play very well."

Davydenko's family, friends and fans were not the only ones celebrating his victory. Some Scots, too, were glad he beat Federer, believing that the Swiss player had not tried hard enough in his round-robin defeat by Del Potro which ended Andy Murray's interest in the tournament.

"TANKS ROGER", said a message, written on a Saltire, prominently displayed behind one end of the court. The H of the word 'thanks' had been scored out with what looked like red sticking plaster. The implication was that Federer had thrown the last set – or tanked it, in tennis terminology – once he realised he had done enough to go through to the last four.

Federer was not at his best against Del Potro, but the same could equally be said of his other matches here, in each of which he also lost the first set. Still, unsurprisingly for a man who was confirmed this week as the year-ending world No 1, the Swiss preferred to look back with satisfaction on the season as a whole rather than dwelling on this defeat or on the relative underachievement of the past week.

"Sure it's disappointing, not to lose to against him, just to lose in the semis," he said. "I had hopes to get through to the final and maybe win again."

Federer added that, whatever outsiders thought of Davydenko, the Russian, who is back in the final after losing it last year to Novak Djokovic, had always retained the respect of his peers. "I don't know if you guys have (given him the respect he deserves]," he told the audience at his post-match press conference. I think it's most important that he has the respect of his fellow-players.

"He had a cloud over his name for quite some time which was not very fair at the end . I think he handled it very well towards the end. So I respect him not only for that, but for the player he is. I wish him all the best for the final."

While Davydenko was breaking new ground in beating Federer, he will have no psychological barrier to cross when he takes on the world No 5 from Argentina this afternoon, having won two out of three matches the pair have played to date. This time the questions about stamina will be primarily posed of US Open champion Del Potro, who had to fight long and hard before finally beating French Open runner-up Soderling 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).