MEDIA

Roger Federer succumbed again to the power of World No. 6 Russian Nikolay Davydenko during the semifinals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2010. The victory over Federer represents it second in a row after defeating the Swiss superstar at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London last December.

 

At the start of November, Davydenko had give in to Federer in all 12 of their previous meetings, but all that changed at the semifinals of the Barclays ATP Tour Finals. The Russian player then went on to played against Juan Martin Del Potro and won the coveted title.

 

Russian Nikolay Davydenko started the 2009 season with few challenges. He suffered a left heel injury in the first week of the season at the Aircel Chennai Open that made him miss the Australian Open and his title defense at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Davydenko had a comeback at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he reached the quarter-finals, and went on to advance to the semi-finals at the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell and the Estoril Open before turning in a quarter-final effort at Roland Garros. The highlight of his season came when he won back-to-back titles for the first time in his career at the International German Open in Hamburg and the ATP Studena Croatia Open in Umag. The Volgograd resident captured the inaugural Proton Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2009 title with victory over Fernando Verdasco and two weeks later claimed his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Shanghai (d. Nadal). He finished the year by winning for the first time in his career the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals trophy at The O2 in south-east London. His efforts last November rewarded him with $1,510,000 in prize money and he overtook Andy Roddick at No. 6 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings.

 

The fifth day of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open saw Roger Federer succumbed to the power of Davydenko, Rafael Nadal winning over Viktor Troicki and Spanish Doubles team of Garcia Lopez and Albert Montanes being crowned as the Doubles Champions.