LONDON — Gazing at the big trophy beside him, Nikolay Davydenko was awed by the etching of his name next to the greats of the game: Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg.
Yet the Russian’s name was there, and he deserves it after beating all three Grand Slam champions of this year on the way to winning the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.
“In 2009, stay name Davydenko for, like, forever,” the 28- year-old Davydenko said, struggling to get the right words in English after beating US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-3 6-4 in Sunday’s final at the O² Arena in London.
“I think it’s amazing. I know, like, (in the) history of the Masters Cup, my name will be there.”
In only one week, Davydenko beat reigning Grand Slam winners Rafael Nadal, Federer and Del Potro and all but one of the finalists. The only player to escape him was Andy Roddick, who withdrew from the tournament with an injury.
Just for good measure, Davydenko overtook Roddick in the rankings, moving from No7 to No6 in the world.
“All four, five matches, what I did here, first it was very good concentration. Physically, I don’t know what I can explain,” said Davydenko, who practised for only three days heading into the tournament. “Step by step, from first match against (Novak) Djokovic, maybe first match give me more chance, more confidence, maybe everything.”
The tournament, renamed the ATP World Tour Finals but still referred to as the Masters Cup by the players, was played at the O² Arena for the first time, and it drew near capacity crowds of about 18000 per session.
Davydenko opened play in Group B with a loss to Djokovic — the same man he lost to in last year’s final. But he rebounded by beating Australian Open champion Nadal and then French Open finalist Robin Soderling.
In the semifinals, the ever- energetic Russian downed Federer, the man who completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open.
“He did well,” said Federer, who lost to Davydenko for the first time in 13 career meetings. “I thought he played strong throughout, even though I don’t think it was our best match we ever played against each other.”
Before winning the title on Sunday, Davydenko may have been best known for being linked to a betting scandal, but the four- time Grand Slam semifinalist has been cleared of any wrongdoing. And now that he has a big trophy to put on his mantle, the pressure will be on Davydenko to win his first Grand Slam title next year.
“If Grand Slams come best-of- three sets, yes,” said Davydenko, who admitted that the matches at majors can be tough on his body.
“I need to have very good physical preparation for the five- set matches in Australia. You need to run not like two hours, you need to run for four hours.”
n One thing is beyond doubt after eight fabulous days of action at the ATP World Tour Finals — tennis has found a spectacular new venue at London’s space-age O² Arena.
Almost all of the 17500 tickets were snapped up for every session and fans were richly entertained, with all but five of the 15 singles matches going to three sets.
The lighting was excellent, the background music added to the entertainment and the tennis served up by eight of the world’s top nine players was top quality.
“I’ve had quite a few players say it’s the best-staged tennis event they’ve ever seen,” said MD Chris Kermode.
“I think everyone’s blown away by the O² … just the presentation of the event and the fact that, even in doubles, it’s been played in front of 17500 people.” With Reuters