The Russian Tennis player Davydenko to miss French Open
The Russian Tennis player Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko has been ruled out from the ongoing French Open. As a result of the injury, Davydenko has become the second top ten players to withdraw from the second Grand Slam of the season. The Russian player has reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam Tournament on four different occasions, twice each at the U.S. Open along with the French Open.
Davydenko is one of the few players who have a winning record against Rafael Nadal. With his tremendous foot speed and anticipation, he has won three master series shields, the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals and was also the runners up in the 2008 Tennis Maters Cup. Davydenko has represented Russia after he was granted a Russian citizenship in the year 1999. Due to his aggressive and consistent style of play, tennis fans have nicknamed Davydenko as “The machine”. Also known as the “Iron man”, he has played in more tournaments per year than any other player.
Davydenko, after turning professional, played mostly on the Futures Tour, where he captured one title and reached three finals in 2001. The Russian player won his first Challenger title in Monchengladbach. Davydenko immediately captured the public eye because of his talent and ability with his Grand Slam debut in 2001 at the Australian Open. He won two Challenger titles in Ulm and Istanbul and finished the season with a quarter final finish in Basel.
2002 was a steady year for Davydenko as he captured his fourth Challenger title in Szczecin. He backed up the 2004 season with solid performances including his first ATP title in Adelaide, his second tour title in Estoril on clay beating Agustín Calleri, and his performances on clay in Barcelona and St. Pölten. He finished in the top 50 player rankings for the first time in his career last year.
He won two more titles for the second consecutive year in 2004. Davydenko captured his first home victory in Moscow and won both the singles as well as the doubles titles, finishing off the season in the top 30 for the first time in his career. He reached the quarter-final for the first time in a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2005. In St. Pölten, after beating the home favourite, Jürgen Melzer, he captured his fifth career title. After the French Open, Davydenko reached the top ten for the first time in his career. He finished off the great season as the number one Russian player along with a world number five ranking.
The Russian star continued to stay in the top 5 in 2006 as well. The year also proved to be a solid clay court season for him as he reached the final in Estoril, a quarter-final at the Hamburg Masters and the quarter-final at the French Open for a second year running. However, Davydenko lost to Roger Federer in his second Grand Slam semi-final at the U.S Open.
Davydenko was slow to find his form during the start of 2007. But later on, found his good form and reached the semi-finals for the second time at the French Open. After reaching the fourth round on his least preferred surface at Wimbledon, Davydenko totally surprised the tennis world. After carrying on with his strong showings, he reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Canada Masters and Cincinnati Masters respectively. He ended the year ranked as the world number five after winning his eleventh career title in Moscow by defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu. He continued with his form in the next year as well and was again ranked as world number five in the world for the fourth consecutive year.
During the 2009 and 2010 season, Davydenko has won two straight titles in the International German Open, ATP Studena Croatia Open Umag, the Malaysian Open 2009 and the ATP World Tour in 2010.
With the help of penetrating ground strokes on both wings, the Russian tennis player employs an offensive baseline game. He is known for his playing style which makes him a good player on any surface. Tennis fans all over the world are definitely going to miss his ground strokes and swinging volleys in this years’ French Open Tournament.
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