Last night, Nikolay Davydenko faced Novak Djokovic once again. The last time these two met, they played three sets in Shanghai in the semifinals with Davydenko taking control of the tiebreak and the winning the tournament over Rafael Nadal.
The two met again, and they went three sets once more except this time, Novak Djokovic won in three sets. This time, he did not need a tiebreak, and won 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Today, Juan Martin del Potro was looking for a win. Playing the lowest ranked played in his group, del Potro needed three sets to beat the tenacious left-hander, Fernando Verdasco: 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1).
Verdasco now has two losses, and del Potro has one win and one loss.
The featured match of the day had to be Roger Federer playing Andy Murray. Federer doesn’t have a losing record to too many players. Obviously, Rafael Nadal is one player Federer has not fared well against. However, some may be surprised that Roger Federer has a losing record to Andy Murray.
The two last played one another at Cincinnati in the final Masters prior to the US Open. Federer played attacking tennis to beat Murray, 6-2, 7-6(8) in the semifinals. He would go on to win that tournament by overpowering Novak Djokovic and make himself the prohibitive favorite to win his sixth consecutive US Open, a feat that he came close to achieving, but ultimately failed against the hard-hitting Argentine, Juan Martin del Potro.
Murray looked like he might beat Roger once again. Taking the first set, 6-3, Roger turned it around in overwhelming fashion, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, and showed that he is still capable of very good tennis. With this win, there is no mathematical way for Rafael Nadal to become number 1. Roger Federer becomes the first player since Ivan Lendl to reclaim the year-end number 1 after losing the number 1 (last year to Rafael Nadal). Roger Federer closes his losing record to Murray to 6-4, having won the last two encounters with the Scot.
In Group A, Roger has a 2-0 record, Murray a 1-1 record, del Potro is also 1-1, and finally Verdasco is 0-2. Tomorrow, Group B plays with Nadal playing Davydenko and Djokovic playing Soderling. Djokovic has a 5-0 head-to-head record against Soderling. He most recently beat him in Paris two weeks ago in the quarterfinals in 3 sets, and beat him in Beijing in straight sets.
Nadal has a narrow lead over Davydenko leading 4-3 in head-to-head. Nadal has not played superlative tennis since the US Open, although he did reach the final of Shanghai. Davydenko is still playing good tennis, so the question is whether Nadal can elevate his game, or whether Davydenko will beat him again as he did a few weeks ago. Davydenko clearly had the match of his life when he played Nadal the previous time, as did Djokovic playing Nadal in the semifinals of Paris. This may say more about Nadal, however, as several players have seemingly played him much closer than they have historically.
Slight edge to Davydenko in that match based on recent results.