For the second time in career, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia advanced to the semis of Tennis Masters Cup. For this purpose, Davydenko beat Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina during 2008 in Shanghai, China Thursday Nov. 13, 2008. Davydenko won 6-3, 6-2.
Photo: AP
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Davydenko Advanced to Last Four at Masters
Nikolay Davydenko of Russia easily saw off Juan Martin del Potro to progress to the Masters Cup semis in Shanghai. This tournament is the fourth Masters Cup played by Davydenko and his second consecutive advance to the last four. In another math of the Gold Group, Novak Djokovic that had booked a place at the play-off in advance yielded to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nikolay Davydenko, who had been steadily reaching Masters Cup for four years running, opened this year’s battle for the final prize by the victory over Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. But the Russian lost the second match to Novak Djokovic after the dramatic fight and needed nothing but victory in the yesterday’s standoff vs. Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
Davydenko and del Potro had had two personal meetings before this year’s Masters. Del Potro lost in Paris in 2007, but revenged at 2008 Davis Cup semis. Given this year’s stunning progress of the Argentine, Davydenko could have hardly staked on the easy match all his experience notwithstanding.
But, perhaps, exactly the lack of experience had played a low-down trick with del Potro, who appeared absolutely unready for the match. He was quite fit physically, but looked just a shadow of himself.
Having realized that there was something wrong with the opponent, Nikolay abandoned his usual cautions methods and started risking at large. A few of his combinations were truly brilliant – Davydenko clearly outclassed del Potro in all parameters, including the service. He broke at 3-1 in the opening set and progressed to 4-1. The Argentine broke back at 4-3 but Davydenko responded by another break in the eighth game to prevail 6-3. The situation was similar in the second set, which the Russian won 6-2.
The semifinal opponent of Davydenko will be decided today. It could be Roger Federer, Gilles Simon or Andy Murray. Nikolay said he would prefer either Murray or Simon, as they were more or less predictable, while Federer was different in every match.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 14, 2008
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