Nikolai Davydenko: Recent Successes
Nikolai Vladimirovich Davydenko is a Russian tennis player who was born in Ukrainian SSR in 1981. He is one of Russia’s leading male tennis players, with a current ranking of world number 6 with a highest ranking of 3. He is one of the few players to have a win record against world number 1 Rafael Nadal.
Nikolai Davydenko is also called “Kolya” (the Russian nickname for Nikolai) or “Iron Man”, for his participation in more tournaments per year than any other player. Other fans also call him “The Machine” for his aggressive game play.
Kolya is a right handed player with a two handed backhand. He is primarily a singles player, with 398 victories to 242 losses. He has a total of 20 singles career titles. His doubles record is 51 wins to 54 losses, earning him one career title and a personal best ranking of world number 31.
Davydenko has made it to 4 Grand Slam semi-finals. The 29-year-old Russian has reached the semi-finals of the French Open and the US Open tournaments on two occasions each. He was a finalist at the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup where he ended as runners up to Novak Djokovic. He achieved greater success the next year with a victory at the 2009 ATP World Tour finals against 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro. Davydenko also holds three Masters Series Shields.
In 2010, Nikolai Davydenko began his year at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. He was, however, defeated by David Ferrer in the first round. A week after this match, Davydenko defeated both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the 2010 Qatar ExxonMobil Open, to win his 20th ATP World Tour title. With this achievement, Davydenko became the second player to beat both tennis pros, the Fed Express and Rafa, at the same tournament.
At this year’s Australian Open, Davydenko won his first three rounds without losing a set to any player. At the fourth round, he defeated Spanish professional tennis player Fernando Verdasco in five sets. He lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in four sets in the quarter-final stage.
Davydenko’s next tournament was the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament at Rotterdam. Seeded second at the tournament, he landed on his wrist and injured it during the semi-final against Robin Soderling. He continued to play, and lost the match to the eventual champion.
His next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships. He also participated in the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, held at Indian Wells, where he defeated Latvian Ernests Gulbis. He then withdrew before the third round with Serbian pro Viktor Troicki, citing a broken wrist. He missed the 2010 French Open, but returned to Halle for the grass court event. In this match, he beat local player Simon Gruel, despite playing against his doctors’ advice. He also participated in the Rogers Cup losing to Jeremy Chardy in the third round, and the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters where he lost to Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. His last tournament was the US Open, where he lost to Richard Gasquet in the second round.
Davydenko’s childhood favourite players were Yannick Noah and Ivan Lendl. He is trilingual, speaking English, German and Russian with fluency. Davydenko married his girlfriend, Irina, in 2006, and resides in Volgograd, Russia.
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