Davydenko falls to Igor Andreev, crashes out of Malaysian Open
On Wednesday, Malaysian Open’s defending champion Russian tennis pro Nikolay Davydenko was defeated in a three set upset by his compatriot, fellow Russian Igor Andreev, in a match, which lasted for 2 hours and 47 minutes, played out in scorching heat, with
the final tally being 7-6, 5-7, 6-3.
Nikolay Davydenko, who is currently World Number 6, was awarded a bye in the first round, promoting him directly to the second round of the tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
At starting point, the match seemed to be a doubtless win for Davydenko. He led the first set 5-1, but only until Andreev discovered the range he had with a forehand and used it ruthlessly to score six points and steal the set.
After his defeat in the first set, Davydenko came back with returned vigour. He began the second set with complete determination, racing ahead to a 5-1 lead. Andreev fought hard to level this score, but only succeeded at making it 5-5, while Davydenko stole
the next two games, evening up the score to one set each.
However, Andreev took the match in the next set, with a decidedly aggressive approach to the game, thereby setting the odds in his favour. This was a surprise victory for the Russian, who is almost a 100 spots behind Davydenko with an ATP ranking of World
Number 102. His stamina also outlasted that of Davydenko’s, a difficult feat to accomplish in the stifling heat, where Davydenko quickly began to falter.
Andreev said, when asked about his unexpected success, “I played better than expected and even I'm surprised I won today. My forehand really paid off today and I think that was the difference between us. I got a lot of confidence from my fight back in the
first set tiebreak and the second set so I was more confident going into the decider. I'm really looking forward to playing in the quarterfinals on Friday”.
Davydenko himself was quite disappointed, but refused to blame his performance on his relatively late arrival to Kuala Lumpur, which meant he had less time to prepare for the tournament. He instead criticized the Wilson balls, saying they were not to his
taste. The 29-year old Russian commented, “I'm used to Dunlop balls and found the ones in the tournament not as good”.
Despite commenting on the state of the balls and his own performance in conjecture to them, Davydenko also appreciated Andreev’s game. He commended Igor Andreev for his performance, saying, “Credit to Igor as he was on top of his game and he played better
than me”, and acknowledged his own subpar performance, saying, “I will have to pick myself up”.
Andreev’s next match will be the Malaysian Open quarterfinal, where he will be competing with fellow first-rounder, Canadian Milos Raonic. Raonic’s highest ranking is 209, but he defeated the seventh seed Sergiy Stakhovsky in three sets, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, to
compete in the first ATP quarterfinal of his career.
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