December 01, 2009

Arturo Velazquez- Tennis Canada

ATP World Tour No. 7 Nikolay Davydenko got the last laugh of the tennis season Sunday as he defeated U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4 to capture the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at The O2 stadium in London.

Davydenko, who was runner-up to 2007 Rogers Cup champion Novak Djokovic at the season finale in Shanghai last year, is the first Russian to win the year-end title in the 39-year history of the tournament. With the win, the Russian picked up a healthy pay cheque worth $1,510,000 in prize money. He was also rewarded with the No. 6 world ranking to close out the 2009 campaign, taking over American Andy Roddick.

“I was looking at the trophy, until 2008, there are so many names there, like Djokovic, Federer, everyone, Sampras,” said Davydenko. “In 2009, it says Davydenko forever on this trophy. I think it's amazing. In the history of the Finals, for my name to be there is something amazing for me.”

The quiet but powerful Davydenko certainly earned this title, defeated nearly every big-name tennis player in the world over the past week. He knocked off all four Grand Slam champions from this year. He defeated World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the round robin, Roger Federer in the semifinals and del Potro in the final match.

“This tournament has a great champion, like Nikolay,” said del Potro, after the loss. “He worked hard to beat every player here this week. So maybe I have to improve a little bit the little things. But he played much better than me, and that's it. He played unbelievable tennis. He beat me in a good way.”

Davydenko jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set and didn’t look back, dropping just five points on his serve. He was aggressive from the opening point and kept control of the match. The Russian did not allow his Argentine opponent to gain any momentum, despite del Potro being known to have one of the most punishing forehands in the world.

“He's very strong,” expressed del Potro. “I never beat him on hard court or indoors. He's very fast. He plays like PlayStation. He runs down everything. It is very difficult to hit winners against him. But I think he is a great champion. Nobody knows how we can beat him.”

Bryans spoil Nestor’s No. 1 season

The final week of the ATP World Tour had to go nearly perfect for American twins Bob and Mike Bryan to take over the top spot in the rankings over Canadian Daniel Nestor and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic. While they didn’t play flawless tennis, they did do just enough to finish the year as No. 1, defeating Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6(5), 6-3 in the final on Sunday.

For the second straight season, it took the last match of the year to decide the final ranking. In 2008, the Bryans lost to Nestor and Zimonjic in a winner-take-all final. This time, the Bryans did not have to face their rivals, who were eliminated in the round robin stage, but they still needed to win the title in order to pass Nestor and Zimonjic for No. 1.

The twins were defeated by Mirnyi and Ram in their opening round-robin match, but enjoyed revenge during the championship match.

“It means so much,” said Bob Bryan. “It's pretty much what we play for now. That's the goal. Play well in the slams, but the ultimate goal is to finish No. 1. We felt like it was stolen from us last year. Now we kind of crept up on those guys and stole it from them this year. We feel like it's a little bit of a payback.”