Nikolay Davydenko topples Denis Istomin in the second round - Open de Nice Côte d’Azur 2012
Former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, came back after the thrashing in the second set to outlast the seventh seed Uzbek, Denis Istomin, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, in the round of 16 at the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur in France.
Istomin made a decent start, as he was first to take lead, breaking the Russian in the second game of the opening set to attain a 2-0 advantage. However, his lead faded away immediately, as Davydenko broke back in the very next
game and held his following serve to even it out at 2-2. Istomin and Davydenko traded blows again in the fifth and sixth to take the score to 3-3. The Russian struck decisively in the seventh game and capitalised on it to win 6-4.
Davydenko neither hit an ace nor any double fault but he kept an impressive first serve percentage of 83 and won 17 of the 30 points on them. The Russian performed outstandingly on the second returns, as he converted 10 of the
14 of them into points.
Istomin raised the level of his game and looked like a totally different player in the second set. He allowed the Russian to win only one game till the end, breaking him twice and holding all of his own serves to seal it 6-1.
The Uzbek gave satisfactory performance on the first serves, maintaining a percentage of 58 and pocketing 10 of the 19 points on them. The 25-year-old, though, did quite well on the second deliveries and first returns, as he secured
11 of the 14 and 10 of the 17 points on them respectively.
After getting stunned in the second set, Davydenko changed his strategy and completely turned around the trend. The Russian started to play aggressively and captured opening four games of the decider to build a 4-0 lead. Istomin
made a try to comeback in the contest by breaking the Russian in the fifth but that was not enough, as Davydenko served it out at 5-3.
The Russian did an extra ordinary job on the second deliveries and returns, as he snatched four of the five and six of the 10 points on them respectively. The 5ft 10 in tall saved one of the two break points he faced and converted
two of the three he received in the final set.
Davydenko needed two hours and two minutes to claim victory after a hard fought battle.
Currently ranked 53rd in the world, Davydenko will take on top seed, John Isner, in the quarter-final.
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