Stanislas Wawrinka knocks out Nikolay Davydenko in BNP Paribas Open Second Round
Stanislas Wawrinka, seed no.12 at this year's BNP Paribas Open, defeated former world no.4 Nikolay Davydenko in 3 difficult sets at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens. The match lasted almost 3 hours, and after 2 hours and 40 minutes of tough play, the Russian
bowed out 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. Switzerland's no.2 had to battle long and hard for the victory though, and his first round bye must have served him in good stead, considering that it left him more rested than his opponent.
The BNP Paribas Open features 96 players. The top 32 seeds are then given a bye into the second round, while the remaining players fight it out for the remaining 32 spots. Wawrinka was seeded 12th thanks to his world ranking of 14.
The man from Switzerland has been having a wonderful 2011. He has already won a tournament this year, he made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, and made the semi-final of his follow up tournament. His win-loss record so far is 14-3. The 25-year-old
is finally coming into his own as a true champion, and gaining a Masters trophy would be one in a long series of steps towards true greatness.
Davydenko already has a masters trophy. In fact, he has 3, one each in Shanghai, Miami and Paris. The Russian was a permanent fixture inside the world top 10 at one point. Recently though, bad form and injury have seen him fall to number 42 in the world.
The match was always going to be close, considering the class of players involved. Davydenko started the match on the front foot. He landed 74 per cent of his first serves in, a much better percentage than Wawrinka's, who only managed 48 per cent. He was
a better at getting points on serve too, as he won 65 per cent of his service points, compared to the Swiss player's 48 per cent. His opponent's weak serving gave the Russian 4 break points, two of which he converted. Despite being broken once himself, Davydenko
closed out the set 6-3.
The second set saw Wawrinka improve immensely. He raised his first serve percentage to 72, which, while still being lower than Wawrinka's 80 per cent, saw him control his service games much better. This time round, the 25-year-old matched his Russian opponent
break for break, which led to a tie-break. That was won when Wawrinka gained a timely mini-break and sealed it 7-5.
The third set saw Davydenko raise his serving percentage to 86. This was not enough though, as Wawrinka delivered perfect second serves to take 62 per cent of his service points, compared to the Russian's 52 per cent. This 10 per cent advantage allowed the
Swiss man 3 breaking opportunites, two of which he took to finally take the match.
After this epic encounter, Wawrinka takes on another tough foe in Marin Cilic. Cilic is seeded 17th here, and will look to cause a minor upset in the third round by taking out the world no.14.
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