Brilliant Davydenko takes ATP World Tour Finals Title

At the end of a dramatic week of fantastic tennis at London’s O2 arena, Nikolay Davydenko became the inaugural ATP World Tour Finals Champion with a 6-3 6-4 final victory over US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro.

It was the biggest title of the 28 year-old Russian’s ten year professional career and capped a week which saw him defeat the three reigning Grand Slam Champions.

In his fifth successive appearance in the Championships Davydenko becomes the first Russian to win the year-end title. He fell to Novak Djokovic in the 2008 final and before that his compatriot Yevgeny Kafelnikov had lost the 1997 final to Pete Sampras.

Davydenko has won all five finals he has reached in 2009 and 19 from 24 in his career.

Davydenko and Del Potro were playing each other for the fourth time, having last played in the group stages of the Masters Cup last year when the Russian also prevailed in straight sets.

On this occasion Davydenko secured an early break of the Argentinean’s serve to take control of the first set and claimed the vital breakthrough in the ninth game of the second set before holding his serve to fifteen to seal the win.

Davydenko now leads Del Potro 3-1 in their head-to-head series.

In the semi-finals Davydenko secured a huge career breakthrough with a first victory in thirteen meetings against World Number one Roger Federer. Federer had been two points from victory when he led love-thirty on Davydenko’s serve in the tenth game of the third set but the Russian held strong.

Federer created one break point opportunity in the final game, which Davydenko saved with a blistering cross-court forehand, before sealing the hugely impressive 6-2 4-6 7-5 win.

Davydenko had lost three Grand Slam semi-finals to the Swiss and had only won 4 from 32 sets in their 12 previous matches.

Del Potro had failed to pass the round robin stage on his tournament debut at Shanghai last year but, after a slow start to the event, the 21 year-old appeared to be approaching the form that took him to his first Grand Slam title in September. Had he won the final, the Argentinean would have moved up to a career high ranking of fourth.

Del Potro was attempting to become the third Argentinean Champion following Guillermo Vilas in 1974 and David Nalbandian in 2005.

In the semi-finals, Del Potro recovered from 2-4 in the third set to come through a hard hitting baseline battle with Robin Soderling 6-7(1-7) 6-3 7-6(7-3). 

Soderling had only secured his spot in London after Andy Roddick’s late withdrawal due to injury.  The Roland Garros finalist became the first Swede to progress to the semi-finals since Jonas Bjorkman in 1997.

It was the second consecutive year, and the fourth time in the past five years, that the eighth seed has reached at least the semi-finals.

Federer was appearing in his seventh successive year-end Championships and had only lost one semi-final, against Lleyton Hewitt on his debut in 2002. The French Open and Wimbledon Champion came from a set down to beat both Fernando Verdasco and Andy Murray in his first two matches before losing for the second time to Del Potro in the final Group A match. 

In a repeat of September’s US Open final, Federer found himself two points from elimination when Del Potro lead 5-4 in the second set tie-break with two serves to come. However, the Swiss fought back to claim the crucial tie-break 7-5 and take his place in the final four.

Del Potro needed to win the deciding set by at least 6-3 to go through to the semi-finals ahead of Murray and duly did so after breaking Federer’s serve in the eighth game.

28 year-old Federer now has a 29-7 win/loss tournament record.

Round Robin results

Singles

British number one Andy Murray was desperately unlucky not to progress to the semi-finals after missing out by a single game as calculations came down to the percentage of games won between Murray, Federer and Del Potro.

Making his second successive appearance at the year-end Championships the world number four defeated Del Potro in three sets in the opening singles match of the event, before falling to Federer 6-3 3-6 1-6 in his second match. 

A straight sets win over Verdasco in his final match would have booked Murray’s spot in the semi-finals. But the Scot encountered the Spaniard in a determined mood and had to come through a titanic battle 6-4 6-7(4-7) 7-6(7-3).  

Murray finishes 2009 with a 66-11 win/loss record and as the only player to win six ATP World Tour titles.
 
Despite losing all of his matches, Verdasco impressed on his Championships debut with determined performances against his higher ranked opponents in Group A.

In his first match the Australian Open semi-finalist led Federer by a set and led love-thirty on the world number one’s serve at 5-5 in the second set, before the Swiss pulled away by winning eight of the last nine games.

In-form defending champion Novak Djokovic failed to progress from Group B as he finished with an inferior sets won/loss record to eventual champion Davydenko, despite having beaten the Russian 3-6 6-4 7-5. Djokovic had a chance of claiming the number two ranking for the first time after Nadal was eliminated.

Djokovic has a 6-5 win/loss record at in three visits to the year-end championships.
   
Going into the final match of the group Davydenko had to beat Soderling to ensure he went through ahead of Djokovic. The Russian overcame a 3-6 head-to-head against the Swede to come through 7-6(7-4) 4-6 6-3. In contrast, Soderling had already booked his semi-final spot having beaten both Nadal and Djokovic in straight sets in his first two matches.

Nadal had reached the semi-finals at both his Masters Cup appearances but appeared well below par in London, as he became the first player since Djokovic in 2007 to lose all three group matches without winning a set.

Nadal was aiming to claim his 400th career match win and will become the fastest ever to achieve this with a current win/loss record of 399-91.

Doubles

Bob and Mike Bryan were crowned ATP World Tour Champions after taking the doubles title in London with a 7-6(7-5)6-3 win over Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram. It gave the 31 year-old twins a third year-end title having triumphed in 2003 and 2004.

The Bryans finish 2009 with 7 titles and a 68-18 win/loss record.

With the victory, the Americans finish the year at the top of the rankings for the fifth time in seven years. With the Wimbledon Champions Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor eliminated after losing their opening two round robin matches, the Bryans had to take the title to clinch the year-end ranking. 

Having lost their opening match, they were in danger of elimination but overcame Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak in straight sets to take their place in the semi-finals.

It was the second year in a row that the Championships’ final has the decided year-end doubles ranking; in 2008 Nestor and Zimonjic beat the Bryans 7-6(7-3) 6-2 in the final. 

Year End Number One Singles Ranking

By virtue of winning his first two round robin matches, Roger Federer clinched the year-end number one ranking for the fifth time in six years. The 28 year-old Swiss becomes only the second player after Ivan Lendl to regain the year end top spot.

Lendl held the year-end top spot from 1985-87, before losing it to Mats Wilander in 1988 but reclaimed it in 1989.

Serena Williams reclaimed the year-end top spot after a gap of seven years – the longest gap between years finishing at number one.

Steffi Graf holds the overall record for the most year end number one finishes with eight between 1987 and 1996.   

ITF / Challenger circuit

Elena Baltacha made her comeback from a recent knee injury at the $75k ITF event in Toyota, Japan. The 26 year-old third seed reached the quarter finals before falling in three sets to Tomoko Yonemura.

The tournament was won by 39 year-old home favourite Kimiko Date-Krumm.

British number 12 Amanda Carreras had an impressive week in Spain reaching both finals at the $10k ITF tournament in Valluxo. The 19 year-old seventh seed went down 2-6 2-6 to the French second seed Laura Thorpe in her sixth ITF singles final.

The Oxfordshire player rebounded to take the doubles title with her Spanish partner Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, winning a close final 6-4 3-6 [11-9] over Year Campos-Molina and Sandra Soler-Sola.

Carreras has a 33-19 singles win/loss record for 2009 and in May won back-to-back $10k singles titles in Turkey.

Naomi Broady had a terrific week in Puebla, Mexico, winning the $25k singles title without dropping a set. The 19 year-old from Cheshire beat three seeded players en route to the final where she defeated Ajla Tomljanovic from Croatia 7-6(4) 6-3.

Broady won a $10k singles title in Grenoble in February and reached a career high ranking of 357 in June. 

Jamie Baker continued his recent strong form by reaching the doubles semi-finals of the $35k ATP Challenger event in Puebla, Mexico.

The 23 year old from Glasgow was an alternate entry with his Australian partner Nima Roshan but progressed to the penultimate round losing a deciding tie-break to the Spanish pairing of Guillermo Olaso and Pere Riba.

Baker fell in the second round of the singles to sixth seeded Grega Zemlja. British number 10 Richard Bloomfield came through qualifying and won a match in the main draw before going down to fourth seeded Riba.  

This week on Tour

The 2009 Davis Cup competition climaxes as Spain and Czech Republic clash in the final from 4-6 December. The indoor clay courts at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona will play host to the final, the 98th since the competition began in 1900.

Reigning Champions Spain have won the title on three occasions - 2000, 2004 and 2008. The Czech Republic won their sole title in 1980 when Ivan Lendl led the team to a 4-1 victory against Italy.

The Spaniards will have a full strength team of Nadal, Verdasco, David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. Lining up for the Czech Republic will be world number 12 Radek Stepanek, former top ten player Tomas Berdych, Jan Hajek and Lukas Dlouhy.

Spain and Czech Republic have met on five previous occasions - the Spanish team currently lead the head-to-head 3-2.

The teams last faced off in 2004 with the Spaniards coming from 1-2 down to defeat Czech Republic 3-2 in the World Group first round. This was also Nadal’s debut in the competition. Then aged 18, the Mallorca native lost his first match to Jiri Novak and lost the doubles (partnering Tommy Robredo) but overcame Stepanek in straight sets in the deciding rubber.

Along with Sweden and the USA; the Czech Republic have contested the elite World Group for 28 years since its inception in 1981 – only missing out when they dropped to Europe/Africa Zone Group I in 2006.

Movers and Shakers

In the year end ATP top ten Federer moves into his 259th total week at number one. His current streak is up to 22 weeks since he reclaimed the top spot from Nadal on July 6th.  

ATP Tour World Finals Champion Davydenko has moved past the injured Wimbledon finalist Roddick to finish the year at 6th and Soderling finishes the year at a career high ranking of eighth.

After her performance in Japan, Elena Baltacha has moved to a career high of 85 and has passed Katie O’Brien to regain the British number 1 ranking.

Baltacha last held the British number one ranking in 2005 when she reached the third round of the Australian Open.

Jamie Baker has moved back into the British top five at 306 after his excellent recent run of form.

ATP year-end top 10

• 1. Roger Federer (SUI)
• 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
• 3. Novak Djokovic (SER)
• 4. Andy Murray (GB)
• 5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
• 6. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
• 7. Andy Roddick (US)
• 8. Robin Soderling (SWE)
• 9. Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
• 10. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)

Top Brits

• 4.     Andy Murray
• 165. Alex Bogdanovic
• 246. James Ward
• 260. Dan Evans
• 306. Jamie Baker

WTA year-end top 10

• 1. Serena Williams (US)
• 2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
• 3. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
• 4. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
• 5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
• 6. Venus Williams (US)
• 7. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
• 8. Jelena Jankovic (SER)
• 9. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
• 10. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)

Top Brits

• 85. Elena Baltacha
• 89. Katie O’Brien
• 99. Anne Keothavong 
• 189. Mel South
• 204. Naomi Cavaday

• 2010 Australian Open Preview
• ATP Players of the Year
• WTA Players of the Year
• Nadal leads Spain to Davis Cup Glory
• Djokovic wins in Paris; Davydenko and Verdasco head to London
• Murray back with a bang, Djokovic wins in Basel
• Sensational Serena seals WTA Championship
• Week of upsets sees titles for Baghdatis, Youzhny, Schiavone and Bacsinszky
• Red hot Davydenko beats Nadal for Shanghai Masters Crown
• Asian success for Djokovic, Kuznetsova and Tsonga
• Davydenko and Simon claim titles as race to London heats up
• Dream week in Seoul for veteran Date Krumm
• US Open Review
• US Open Week One
• Querrey & Dementieva clinch US Open Series
• Fed moves up a gear ahead of US Open
• Magnificent Murray reaches No.2
• Hard court season in full swing as Roddick joins 500 club
• Injury, revenge, first-time winners and British success
• Fed sets new records