Nikolay Davydenko destroys Gilles Simon in 1st round – Valencia Open 2011
Nikolay Davydenko, former world No.3, displayed his level of professionalism and perfection as he played his opening round match of Valencia Open 2011 against world No.12, Gilles Simon, beating him down 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, in a long
2 hour and 14 minutes hard blue court match at Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciències, Valencia, Spain on Monday, 31st October.
Moving on with the match, Simon, Frenchman, won the toss and served first. Unable to make impact, the higher ranked Frenchman broke down to the former world No.3 and lost his opening serve, 0-1. Advantaging from the early break,
Davydenko pulled off another winner, game two, and led the scoreboard, 2-0.
Finally, pulling off his first win, Simon rolled down his side of the scoreboard, 1-2, switching the serve back to the Russian world No.36. Davydenko maintained his two games lead as he served out game four, 3-1, however, Simon
followed with a winner, 3-2, yet could not break back and level the scores.
Unable to break each other any time next, both players won games of respective serves with Davydenko leading the set. Finally with scores at 5-4, the veteran pocketed the set winning game 10 to finish off the scores at 6-4.
Continuing with the second set, Simon, struggling in the opener, served out the first game of set two rolling down the scoreboard first, 1-0. Davydenko replied back with a winner and followed with breaking the Frenchman, game 3,
to lead the second set, 2-1.
Taking control, the Russian extended his lead to 3-1 winning 2 games, back-to-back. Simon, finding it hard to counter the veteran, eventually made a comeback as he served-n-broke next to level the scores at 3-3. Holding on to his
defence, Simon charged up next as he levelled up at 4-4 and struck again.
Serving out game 9, 5-4, world No.12, Frenchman, broke the lower ranked Russian in game 10, winning the set 6-4, and levelling up the match scores, 1-1.
With the match blazing up, Simon, for the third time, took the set opening serve rolling down the scoreboard, 1-0. Davydenko, however, followed up right away levelling back the scores, 1-1. Repeating the second set starting, the
Russian broke the world No.12 in game 3, 2-1, and served out game 4 to lead the set 3-1.
Winning his second game, Simon pulled back the lead to 2-3, yet could not break back to level up the scores. Davydenko kept on bagging games of respective serves along with a rock solid defence. Frustrated, the Frenchman started
giving away points through unforced errors.
With scores at 5-3 now, Simon served to cut the lead; however, he broke down and lost the set, 6-3. Davydenko, although well below in ranking, proved himself worthy of his former ranked, world No.3, as he hammered the higher ranked
Frenchman with mere difficulty to walk on to the next round.
Nevertheless, through into the second stage, the Russian now goes on to play another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, an easy competitor, to battle out the quarter-final seat of the ATP World Tour 500 event.
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