World No. 1 Roger Federer got his Masters Cup campaign back on track by eliminating Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets yesterday.
The triple Masters Cup champion, shocked in his opening match by Fernando Gonzalez, overwhelmed the Russian 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 27 minutes to remain in the running for his sixth straight semi-final.
Federer was expected to come out firing but he made a pedestrian start before pouncing in the eighth game, converting his first break point as Davydenko put a backhand volley long.
PHOTO: EPA
The Swiss, who sprayed an eyebrow-raising 22 unforced errors in the set, suffered an uncharacteristic wobble when serving to go one-up and swiped a baseline backhand into the net to be broken back.
However, Davydenko's revival proved short-lived as Federer, recovering his aggression, broke again for the set as the Russian miscued badly with a forehand volley.
Federer converted the last of five break points at 2-1 in the second to put a stranglehold on the match, roaring with delight as he finally found form.
Davydenko's volley failed him yet again as Federer broke for 5-1. But the Swiss was again broken when serving for the set, and the match, before finally finishing it 6-3 on Davydenko's misfired backhand.
The result means Davydenko, appearing at his third straight Masters Cup, cannot reach the semi-finals following his opening loss to Andy Roddick.
It is also a boost for Federer, who had never lost a round robin match in 15 matches at the season finale until being beaten by Gonzalez on Monday.
The 26-year-old Swiss triumphed in 2003, 2004 and last year, with his only previous defeats coming in the 2002 semis to Lleyton Hewitt and in the 2005 final to David Nalbandian.
Davydenko is coming off a troubled year with the ATP investigating suspicious betting patterns relating to a match he played in Poland in August. However he won an appeal against a US$2,000 fine for not trying hard enough during the St. Petersburg Open.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later