Well Done Davydenko for winning World Tour Finals

Just like to say well done to Davy, he was the player of the tournament and deserved to win.


I was amazed at his consistency, particularly in the Federer match, he just kept going for shot after shot, I was thinking "he'll start missing those soon", but he didn't. All credit to him.

However, I also have to say, I think it's true that Federer is no longer the player he used to be. He shows glimpses of his genius, but all too often these days he looks flat. He looked flat in both the Wimbledon and US Open finals- it's a credit to his all-round credentials that these matches went to five sets. Then he plays a match like he did against Murray- in the 3rd set he looked awesome. In the match against Davy there was a moment when I thought he was going to turn the match around- remember the overhead smash he managed to hit a winner from? That was a piece of magic, but the old Federer would have finished the job.

I'm not saying he's washed up or anything, just that he's no longer the force he was (also losing the aura of invincibility). I suppose you can't stay at the top forever, but it's sad to witness this type of decline, I had to watch it happen to Stephen Hendry in the snooker, and it looks as though the same could happen here, with Del Potro, Djokovic, Murray et al taking the mantle. Time will tell.

Tennis World Tour Finals live stream Davydenko vs. Del Potro

Argentine Juan Martin del Potro fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the third set to edge Robin Soderling 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-6(3) and reach the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Saturday evening at The O2.

The 21-year-old del Potro, who failed to advance past the round-robin stage on his debut at the season finale in Shanghai last year, is the first Argentine to reach the title match since David Nalbandian lifted the trophy in 2005 – recovering from a two-set deficit to edge Roger Federer.


"It was a very, very tough match," said del Potro. "It was so close. We played unbelievable points.  We served well. The difference was just a couple of points in the tie-break in the third set."

“I think it's pretty obvious losing 7-6 in the third [set] in the semi-finals here, it's pretty disappointing,” said Soderling. “It was a very tough match. Maybe I could have played a little bit better in the important moments and taken advantage of my chances. But overall, not much I could do. I don't think I did anything wrong at the end of the match; he just played a little bit better than me.”


In the final, del Potro will face Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who earlier overturned a 0-12 record against Federer to reach the final for the second year in a row. Davydenko takes a 2-1 career lead into the clash, winning the pair’s most recent encounter in straight sets in the round-robin stage at last year’s season climax.

Davydenko takes on Federer on the 1st semifinal of World Tour Finals

Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko booked his place in the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the expense of defending champion Novak Djokovic Friday evening as he defeated Group B winner Robin Soderling 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3.

While Davydenko and Djokovic, who earlier beat Rafael Nadal, have both compiled 2-1 match records, Davydenko has the edge over the Serbian on sets won. Davydenko has a 5-3 win-loss record in sets, while Djokovic has won one set less with a 4-3 mark. Sweden’s Soderling tops the group with a 2-1 match record and a 5-2 mark in sets won and lost.

Davydenko will now take on Group A winner Roger Federer in the first semi-final, as he bids to reach the final for the second year in a row, while Soderling faces US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro on Saturday evening.

Davydenko is yet to beat 2009 ATP World Tour Champion Federer in 12 meetings with the Swiss, but believes he can overturn that tomorrow. “Each of the 12 times I played him I came in believing I could win,” said Davydenko. “It's not like I was coming into the match and already saying I'm losing.

“But I know Federer is older, I'm also older. Maybe I am starting to play better and Federer not so good. We'll see. I played great in all three matches [this week]. I would like to play the same way as I did today, and I hope I can run well tomorrow, fast, and not make any mistakes.”

Soderling keeps hopes alive to qualify for ATP World Tour finals

Ninth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling won a tense do-or-die third-round clash against sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, a fellow Barclays ATP World Tour Finals contender, at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris on Thursday to keep alive a five-way battle for the last two singles berths at the prestigious season climax.

Soderling avenged last month’s Proton Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2009 semi-final defeat against Davydenko with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win in the pair’s fourth meeting this year. Despite hitting 11 aces and saving eight of 10 break points, Davydenko must now wait on other players results at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament if he is to qualify for the elite eight-man event at The O2 in London.

Soderling will next challenge either French wild card Arnaud Clement or ATP World Tour 2009 match-wins leader Novak Djokovic, the No. 3 seed from Serbia, in the quarter-finals.

The 25-year-old Soderling, who finished runner-up to Roger Federer at Roland Garros in June, improved to a 47-18 match record on the season. He added 90 South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings points for 3,010 points overall and remains 290 points behind No. 8-ranked Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Davydenko, a winner of four ATP World Tour titles this year, is currently No. 7 in the year-to-date rankings with 3,630 points.

Impressive Davydenko outclasses Rafael Nadal

What a match it turned out to be, the finals covered for many poor results and retirements of the tournament.

Congrats Davydenko for an inspired spirited performance, the match against Djokovic would have made him realize that he cant still play a match at that high level consistently, and we witnessed what Davydenko could do if he plays his best.

Davy's Tactics:

1]Very similar one of Rafa's formula - hit to BH again and again till Rafa moonballs, and then to hit a winner

2]Hit the ball with power in Air when going for winner than letting it bounce. This really paid dividends to Davy, as he won so many points with it and completely left Nadal out of the game.

3]Go for winners down the line or curling mid- cross court.

Saying all this its very difficult to play that aggressive with control, but Davydenko did it with precision accuracy.

Only time he blinked was on 1st set leading 4-3 [with a break of serve], thats the only time he felt nerves to lose a serve.

Minus points of the match
-------------------------
1]Very Poor Officiating by line referees , to many mistakes, both players lost faith on line calls. Davydenko was the most to suffer, some of his line shots which he didn't challenge were actually clean shots.

2]Nadal taking hell lot of time in between serves, twice it was clocked to be over 40 secs, the one precision clocking was displayed was on 1st set when the score line was 4-4 30-30 Nadal serving took too many seconds to serve. No idea when the chair umpire will have the guts to penalize him.

All in all a great match, and congrats Davydenko and Nadal for the impressive show.