Nikolay Davydenko – Wimbledon Men’s Tennis Player

Russian Nikolay "the machine" Davydenko has been in the news rather a lot recently and it has not been his fancy footwork on-court that has had the media buzzing.

The world number four has, on two occasions, been asked by the presiding umpire to ‘try his best’ during a match. The first incident was at the St Petersburg Open in October. He was defeated, 1-6 7-5 6-1, by Marin Cilic & during the match was given a code violation by the umpire for not giving his best effort. The governing body of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) later fined him $2,000.

At the Paris Masters a week later when Davydenko lost, 6-2 6-2, to Marcos Baghdatis, again the referee asked him to lift his game.

Earlier in the year Nikolay Davydenko, Wimbledon men’s tennis player, was embroiled in match fixing allegations involving British online sports bookmakers Betfair. The ATP is currently conducting an ongoing investigation into the match between Davydenko and Arguello.

Notwithstanding all the controversy, the number one Russian has given some solid performances on the ATP and Masters Series Tours. Unlike his contemporaries Rafael Nadal, David Nalbandian and Tomas Berdych, Davydenko will not set the world ablaze with his extraordinary tennis talent. He is not a natural like so many other young rising stars, but he does play good, consistent tennis when he is trying his best!

He has never really impressed at the All England club, and his best results at Wimbledon came in 2007 when he reached the 4^th round. It is common knowledge that grass is his least preferred surface, and he has never won a match on grass, or even reached a final on grass.

Having failed yet again at Wimbledon 2008 by losing to Benjamin Becker in straight sets, Davydenko will have to step up his game for 2009. He has come very close to defeating Nadal on clay courts, and successfuly beat the Spaniard at the Miami Masters. Davydenko has had the better of players like Jonas Bjorkman, Fernando Gonzalez and Olivier Rochus and he is currently playing the best tennis of his career.

• He defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-2 and won the Miami Masters in 2008 claiming a second ATP Masters Series title.
• At the 2007 Rome Masters he made it through to the final and then nearly snaffled the title from world number two, Rafael Nadal, in an extremely closely contested match, 6-7 7-6 4-6.
• He reached the semi-finals of the French Open, but lost to the top ranked man in the world, Roger Federer, 5-7 6-7 6-7.
• He again went down to Federer in the semi-finals of the US Open, 5-7 1-6 5-7.
• He was the second player in the top ten to be dismissed in the first round of the men's singles event at Wimbledon 2008.

Of the eight Masters Series events he played in 2007 he achieved:

• 2 semi-final finishes
• 1 quarterfinal finish
• 1 fourth round finish
• Three third round finishes
• 1 second round finish

Davydenko clearly has a problem with grass so it is highly unlikely that he will claim the Wimbledon Men’s Singles crown anytime soon – but, stranger things have happened.