Davydenko
Stuns Nadal for Miami Title
Nikolay Davydenko puts
on a devastating display of tennis to rout Rafael Nadal and capture the 2008
Sony Ericsson Open championship. In all facets of the game, Nadal was simply no
match for Davydenko.
Last
Thursday Nikolay Davydenko was down match point in his first match of the
Masters Series Miami to Ernests Gulbis. The 19-year-old Latvian had a sitting
backhand to eliminate Davydenko from the tournament, but he missed it wide. Ten
days later, Davydenko is standing as the champion. The Russian crushed No. 2
Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon to capture
the title.
Nadal entered this final showdown as the heavy favorite, but his opponent sent
a message right away that he had other ideas. Davydenko handled Nadal's serve
with ease all day long and it first showed as he broke the Spaniard to take a
quick 2-1 advantage. Although Davydenko donated the break of serve right back
to Nadal, he secured another break at 3-3 and held the rest of the way to take
the opening frame.
Just as he did against Andy Roddick in the semifinals, with a set in hand
Davydenko went into cruise control and ran away with the match. The Russian's
impressive serving continued, as Davydenko won all nine of his first-serve
points in the second set. He was even more in the zone, however, with his
return game. Merely spinning his serves in proved far too little for Nadal, as
Davydenko consistently took them inside the baseline to seize the early
advantage in baseline rallies. That forced Nadal--as he often does--to spend
the majority of the afternoon extremely far back in the court, whereas
Davydenko remained on the offensive and even frequently came to the net. Some
brutal forehand angles kept Nadal running all over the place and Davydenko also
astounded the crowd with some exquisite drop volleys.
Nadal made far too many errors, especially off the Davydenko serve, but this
probably would have been a losing effort regardless of his performance.
Davydenko was simply in other-worldly form throughout the afternoon, and that
propelled the 26-year-old to the biggest win of his career.
"For me it's surprising standing here (as the winner)," said the
surprise champion. "I never play good in Miami. Standing here and winning
it, it's crazy."
Sony Ericsson Final: Rafael Nadal vs. Nikolay Davydenko
The championship match of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open features the No. 2 player in the world pitted against a surprise finalist. It’s Rafael Nadal vs. Nikolay Davydenko for the title in what should be a grueling baseline battle.
Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko have taken drastically different paths through the Masters Series Miami draw, but nonetheless two of the world’s top four tennis players will meet on Sunday afternoon for the title. It will be the third career head-to-head meeting between Nadal and Davydenko, and the Spaniard holds a 2-0 advantage. Nadal emerged victorious in an early showdown at the 2006 Masters Cup (hard court) after dropping the first set, and he prevailed again at last year’s Masters Series Rome (clay), also 6-4 in the third.
Even though Nadal will be heavily favored, it should be yet another difficult contest because Davydenko has been heating up with every match in Miami. The Russian was one point from elimination in his first match with Ernests Gulbis before he rallied from a one-set deficit to survive in a third-set tiebreaker. Davydenko also lost opening frame in each of his next to matches against Simone Bolelli and Mario Ancic. Finally things were more routine in the quarterfinals, where Davydenko breezed past Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-1. In the semifinals he met No. 6 Andy Roddick, who was coming off a monumental three-set win over Roger Federer. Roddick clearly could not sustain the same level, but Davydenko put on his most impressive performance of the fortnight and deserves all credit for his 7-5(5), 6-2 victory.
Nadal, contrastingly, has lost just one set en route his first Miami final since 2005, when he lost a two-set lead to Federer. In his first three matches, Nadal cruised past Benjamin Becker, Nicolas Kiefer, and Paul-Henri Mathieu, respectively. At that point James Blake looked to gain revenge for his loss to Nadal just two weeks ago in Indian Wells, and after the first set it looked like Blake was on his way. But Nadal steamrolled the American in sets two and three to reach the semifinal. On-fire Tomas Berdych offered some resistance early in that match, but the Czech double-faulted at 6-7 in the first-set tiebreaker and completely went away thereafter. In fairness to Berdych, Nadal was just brutally relentless throughout the last eight games of the match.
Both Davydenko and Nadal engaged in contrast of styles in their respective semifinal matchups, but baseline grinder vs. baseline grinder is the story of Sunday’s title bout. Neither player has a dominant serve, so it’s all going to come down to which man can seize the upper handin groundstroke battles. Davydenko is so solid from the back of the court, but he is not a big person (just 5’10’’) so Nadal’s heavy topspin forehand could give him trouble. The Russian needs to play close to the baseline and take balls early like he did against Roddick. If Davydenko continues to play aggressively, he should give his opponent a significant test, but all in all expect Nadal to wear him down along with the Miami midday heat.
Roddick Suffers Post-Federer Letdown against
Davydenko Andy Roddick fails to
put his emotional quarterfinal behind him and falls to Nikolay Davydenko in the
Sony Ericsson Open semifinals less than 24 hours after defeating Roger Federer.
Davydenko will meet Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final.
Apparently Andy Roddick forgot his quarterfinal triumph over
Roger Federer wasn’t the title match. Can you blame him? Roddick took down the
No. 1 player in the world for just the second time in 17 career tries on
Thursday night and had to come right back to face Nikolay Davydenko in the
Masters Series Miami semifinals on Saturday evening. Unable to sustain both the
high standard of play and the same emotional intensity, Roddick fell to
Davydenko 7-6(5), 6-2. For a while, however, it looked like Roddick still had the
mojo going, as the first set actually seemed eerily similar to Roddick’s first
set against Federer on Thursday. The American again served incredibly well in
the opening frame of the match, putting in 76 percent of his first deliveries
while firing eight aces and no double-faults. He lost just eight points on
serve in the first set. Davydenko, however, was just as dominant in his own
service games. The world No. 4 served at 74 percent in the first set and
allowed Roddick a mere seven return points. Not surprisingly, the opening set progressed to a
tiebreaker. Roddick took a one mini-break advantage at 4-3, but Davydenko
bounced right back to take both of his opponent’s next two service points and
he went on to take it seven points to five. At the start of the second set, Roddick wasn’t quite ready
to admit that this just wouldn’t be his night, as Thursday had been. After
trading holds of serve, the sixth-ranked Roddick broke Davydenko for a 2-1
lead, but it was all downhill after that. The Russian returned the favor right
back in Roddick’s next service game and Davydenko did not lose another game the
entire match. Roddick’s serve diminished in both percentage and effectiveness,
as Davydenko began to read it and block it back deep in the court with power.
Once in a rally, Davydenko controlled groundstroke exchanges by playing close
to the baseline, taking any shots Roddick threw at him and sending them back in
typical rock-solid Davydenko fashion. Too many errors crept into Roddick’s
game, in part because Davydenko simply made him hit too many balls, but surely
also because it’s borderline impossible to keep up such an amazing standard of
play less than 24 hours after ousting the best player in the world. Davydenko advances to the Sunday afternoon final in which he
will face No. 2 Rafael Nadal. He is 0-2 lifetime against the Spaniard—including
0-1 on hard courts—but both losses were three-set battles.
Both men have been on the brink of elimination in Miami, but Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko have survived to set up a Friday night semifinal showdown at the Sony Ericsson Open.
Andy Roddick took down Roger Federer on Thursday, but there is work left to do. The question is will he suffer a letdown against Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals of the Masters Series Miami less than 24 hours after his gigantic win. It seems like that is the only way Roddick could lose, as he is a perfect 5-0 against the Russian in head-to-head meetings, including 4-0 on hard courts.
Considering Roddick’s current form, now is probably not the best time for Davydenko to break through. The American—in addition to defeating Federer yesterday—is only three weeks removed from a huge title in Dubai, where he ousted Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal en route to the final. It hasn’t been smooth sailing in Miami, but Roddick has heated up with each match. In the second round he was level at 4-4 in the third set with Viktor Troicki before holding serve and then breaking to prevail 6-4. Against unheralded Ivo Minar in round three, Roddick took the first set in a tiebreaker and squandered a break in the second frame before recovering to win in straight sets. On Tuesday night he dropped the first set to in-form Julien Benneteau, but Roddick again righted the ship to win in three. That propelled him into the quarterfinal clash with Federer, in which his serve was on fire and the rest of his game was also outstanding. A 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3 triumph gave Roddick his second career win over Federer in 17 tries.
Davydenko has also endured some enormous struggles on his way to the semifinals. The No. 4 player in the world was one point from elimination in his first match with Ernests Gulbis before he rallied from a one-set deficit to survive in a third-set tiebreaker. Davydenko also lost opening frame in each of his next to matches against Simone Bolelli and Mario Ancic. Finally things were more routine in the quarterfinals, where Davydenko breezed past Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-1.
Roddick has been a part of these huge stages a lot more frequently than Davydenko, who consistently goes deep in big tournaments but fails to take a next step by winning a signature title. That’s been the case in 2008, as Roddick already has the Dubai title in his name whereas Davydenko has been to two semifinals but lost both. If Roddick serves like he did against Federer, the road ends at yet another semifinal for Davydenko. If Davydenko manages to turn this match into a baseline grind and lull his opponent into backhand-to-backhand rallies, this one will be close. Under normal circumstances Roddick would be a hands-down pick to win this semifinal matchup going away, but it will be interesting to see how he bounces back one day after such an emotional victory.