Published in Nerve* Magazine (January issue) for Bournemouth University.
Davydenko snatched victory to become the unlikely champion of the ATP World Tour Finals in London this December.
As the last major event in the annual tennis calendar, it’s every tennis player’s dream to star in the prestigious ATP World Tour Finals. Traditionally held in December, though for the first time O2 Arena in London, this year’s tournament progressed in arguably one of the most electrifying fashions. James Hartnett reports on an extremely exciting end to an action-packed tournament. New-found champion Nikolay Davydenko said it was “amazing” to be part of the roll of honour at the ATP World Tour Finals - watched by sell-out crowds all week - whilst also becoming the first ever Russian to win the trophy in the process.
Before the competition, there was no question that it would be one of three of the elite would clinch the title – be it local boy and World No.4 Andy Murray, the injury-plagued World No.2 Spaniard Rafael Nadal or the seemingly unstoppable Swiss World No.1 Roger Federer. It’s no surprise therefore that, after already winning an impressive four times in this tournament, Federer was heavily tipped for the title.
Skip forward one week however, and it is the World No.6 with his hands on the trophy – and the huge £900,000 first prize. Having breezed past World No.8 Robin Soderling and making easy work of Nadal and in-form World No.3 Novak Djokovic in the group stages, Davydenko then went on to knock out hot-favourite Federer in the semi-finals – his first ever win against the mighty Swiss – before setting up a mouth-watering, albeit unplanned, final with in-form Argentine World No.5 Juan Martin Del Potro.
It took Davydenko just 1 hour 23 minutes to make light work of Del Potro however, with an action-packed
6-3 6-4 calling the match to an abrupt end. Not only had Davydenko beaten, most notably, the top two world seeds, but had also now beaten the US Open champion in straight sets in confident style. Although Del Potro’s tennis was far from his usual form, the Argentine bowed out respectably, stating post-match about Davydenko “he played unbelievable tennis, he beat me in a good way”. Davydenko modestly revealed he was “surprised to win”, also commenting that the thought of facing Del Potro – only 21-years-old and already pushing for World No.4 spot – made him “scared about how he would play”.
The quality on show was for all to see, ending the 2009 tennis season in spectacular fashion, and it’s pretty safe to say, 2010 could be an extremely interesting year for tennis...
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The only downer in such a mesmeric tournament was the confusion regarding the four semi-final places. Theoretically, this should be easy. However, five players had shown what was thought to be good enough form to qualify to the latter stages – not exactly ideal when only four are needed.
With Davydenko, Federer and Soderling all safely through to the last four, the final place was up for grabs for either Murray or Del Potro. Both men, alongside Roger Federer, had a 2-1 win/loss record in the group stages and it eventually came down to percentage of games won to determine the final place. Sadly for us Brits, it wasn’t to be our Flying Scotsman qualifying, with Del Potro edging the percentages by a mere one game.
However, it took 15 minutes for this decision to be made, with Del Potro nervously on his court and Murray watching attentively on TV - both with baited breath until they knew which one had qualified. In the calamity, Del Potro even had time to embrace fellow Argentine and Manchester City star Carlos Tevez before knocking up a few rallies with the man whilst they waited for official confirmation that he was, eventually, through.
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With any luck, such a shambles won’t be seen again next year, and besides one minor blip the competition was majestic from start to finish. The quality on show was for all to see, ending the 2009 tennis season in spectacular fashion, and it’s pretty safe to say, 2010 could be an extremely interesting year for tennis. Who says football’s the beautiful game?
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