Davydenko surprise win at Barclays ATP World Final in London stuns the tennis world (12/09)
Barclays ATP World final in London’s O2 arena completed the ATP season with a bang as greater than 250,000 people attended the eight-day event. Amazingly it saw the smallest competitor, Nikolay Davydenko, beat the tallest, Juan Martin Del Potro and the Bryan Brothers overtake Nestor and Zimonjic to grab the number one doubles ranking by beating Mirnyi and Ram 7-6,6-3. Bob Bryan said after the match reaching number one means everything to him, that it is the ultimate goal.
In Group A, Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro came thru with 2-1 records while Andy Murray missed the semifinals by one game in the tie break format as he also finished 2-1. Fernando Verdasco took all his three opponents to three sets but came up empty losing all his matches.
In Group B, Davydenko and Swede Robin Soderling made the semifinals while Novak Djokovic narrowly missed out despite a 2-1 record. Rafael Nadal the number two player in the world did not look sharp losing all his matches. Soderling was ranked 9th but made it when Andy Roddick pulled out because of an injury.
In the semifinals Del Potro sneaked by Soderling in an exciting third set tiebreaker while Davydenko surprised everyone by beating Roger Federer for the first time in thirteen matches. Federer said after the match he was very disappointed, not so much in losing to Davydenko but not getting to the finals for the second straight year.
Nikolay Davydenko completed his amazing run by easily beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4. For Davydenko it was the biggest tournament victory of his career. In London he did the improbable by defeating all of the major championship winners of the year. Asked after the match, Davydenko said he was surprised how easily he won and attributed it to concentrating 100% throughout the match. He looked forward to next year’s grand slams but pointed out winning three out of five sets is a lot harder than two out of three like it was in London. The final standings with rankings and points and # of tournaments played for the 2009 season are below.
1 Federer, Roger (SUI) 10,550 19
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) 9,205 19
3 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) 8,310 23
4 Murray, Andy (GBR) 7,030 19
5 Del Potro, Juan Martin (ARG) 6,785 22
6 Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS) 4,930 26
7 Roddick, Andy (USA) 4,410 20
8 Soderling, Robin (SWE) 3,410 27
9 Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) 3,300 24
10 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried (FRA) 2,875 26
For more info, schedule of tournaments, results and more, please visit www.atptennis.com or www.atpworldtour.com