Perhaps it’s because he lacks the youthful appearance of Yevgeny Kafelnikov.  Or the moody dysfunction of Marat Safin.  Or that he’s never reached the finals of any Slam.

Nikolay Davydenko doesn’t get much respect.  Like Kafelnikov, he’s a player that doesn’t mind playing a few more tournaments to make up for the lack of big deal endorsements others get.  He was once accused of tanking a match for money.

He looks a bit like an accountant, prematurely balding.  The last great player to have a receding hairline was Andre Agassi, but that was seen as Agassi, part 2, where part 1 was the spiky haired kid with the neon spray painted shirts, the denim shorts, the “image is everything” reputation, and part 2 was a trimmed hairdo, with the pirate bandanna and a ear-ring.  Agassi wasn’t old, he was mature.

Does anyone remember what Davydenko sounds like?  And yet, at age 28, Davydenko has had a resurgence in his career.  He’s not number 3, as he was at his best.  At number 6, he’s pulled off victories that he didn’t pull off when he was 23 or ranked number 3.  The change started in Shanghai.  Here were the list of his opponents along the way: Igor Kunitsyn (still playing at the USO), Fernando Gonzalez, Radek Stepanek, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal.  Had Stepanek not had the misfortune of playing Ivo Karlovic, everyone on this list would still be playing in the US Open now.

Some may quibble that Rafa plays subpar after the US Open.  His body has traditionally started to break down shortly before the Open and his indoor results have always been good, but not great.  Rafa gets to semis and to finals, but has a hard time winning them, especially since more players play better on faster surfaces.

But Davydenko would show this win was no fluke.  In the ATP World Tour Finals, he would beat Robin Soderling, Rafael Nadal (again), Roger Federer, and Juan Martin del Potro.  And he would do it not playing “big man” tennis, the kind of power tennis that has del Potro ranked 4th in the world (and back to 5th since he was separated by only 5 points from Andy Murray and failed to defend a title a week after Murray failed to defend his Doha title).

And even that was no fluke.  After a month of rest, Davydenko went to Doha as merely the third highest ranked player to play in the tournament, after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.  He beat Federer in straight sets in the semifinals and beat Nadal for the third time in the finals after getting decimated in the first set, 6-0.  He’s one of the few players, perhaps the only active one, that has played Nadal more than once or twice and has a winning record.

But people wonder.  Is it real?  Could he handle a best of 5 set tournament for 7 matches?  He had his opportunities in the French, beating Fernando Verdasco en route to the quarterfinals, before he ran into the Swedish bulldozer, Robin Soderling, who wanted to show his upset was no flash in the pan.  Soderling was one of the few players that had had success against the Russian and beat him in the quarterfinals when many, seeing how efficiently he beat Verdasco, were predicting a run to the final.

Through two matches, Davydenko has been efficient as usual.  6-1, 6-0, 6-3 against German, Dieter Kindlmann, and a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 win over Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine.  These are names few know but decisive wins early on never seem like a problem.  At the very least, that’s two matches Davydenko didn’t get tired playing.  These days, reporters are asking him questions.  With Federer being a contemporary, recently married with children, Davydenko is getting asked about kids.  As Mirka is Roger’s manager, Irina Davydenko appears to be Davydenko’s manager, perhaps to an even greater degree.

When cameras focus on her, especially when Davydenko isn’t playing well, she looks disapprovingly, as if she knows he can do better than that.  Sometimes it seems the fear of a scolding from the wife eggs Davydenko to play better.  Hell hath no fury, they say.  Davydenko is a private man, coached by his brother, and staying out of the limelight.  Reports say his wife has nixed the idea of a baby as it may impact his career.

Davydenko’s first serious match will be against up-and-coming, Juan Monaco of Argentina.  Monaco needed five sets to win his 2nd round match, but he’s young.  Davydenko will use his quickness and precision to dismantle the Argentine and show he’s for real.  This will be a key matchup.  If he wins easily, the rest of the field will be served notice.

Roger Federer, as he typically does, never focuses on the negatives, especially when winning.  He beat Igor Andreev in the first round, but not before needing a herculean effort to avoid playing a fifth set.  His game had gone haywire in the third.  Serving for the set, he got broken not once, but twice.  Andreev was in the driver’s seat waiting to serve out the set, and had set points on his racquet.  Federer hung tough, got the break back, and won the tiebreak and the following set comfortably.

Still, it would make both fans and reporters happier if Federer would win a match easily.  Enter Victor Hanescu.  Never heard of him?  He’s actually a month older than Roger Federer, but without the illustrious career.  He has a big enough serve, and powerful groundstrokes, but he doesn’t have a fearsome forehand like Andreev, nor does he move like Andreev.  Few things seem to get Hanescu to react.  This was the perfect opponent for Roger Federer.

In a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 match, Roger Federer has 8 aces, 52 winners to 18 unforced errors.  Recall Verdasco’s epic semifinals against Nadal.  That went 5 sets with Verdasco hitting nearly 100 winners, but upwards of 70 unforced errors.  This was Federer at his most efficient.  Federer isn’t the returner that either Nadal or Murray is, so he doesn’t get too many 6-1 or 6-0 sets.  Even the 6-0 set against Andreev was a challenge.  His first two breaks were in games that went to deuce.

Late in the third set, a surprise guest came to watch.  Prince William, making a visit to Australia, watched Federer.  Word was, when Agassi was playing in the French Open and then President Clinton was a guest, Agassi got so rattled that he began to lose games.  Agassi now denies that claim, saying he never even saw Clinton.  Federer seemed surprised at the visitor, but it didn’t impact his game.  He continued to play sublime tennis.

Federer’s next challenge is 31st seed, Albert Montanes.  Brad Gilbert says he’s a speedy counterpuncher from Spain, so it may be another comfortable match with a faster player.  Like Hanescu, Montanes has only ever played Roger on hard courts prior to this meeting, and like Hanescu, he’s never beaten Roger.  This is not uncommon.  Roger has plenty of players, even highly ranked players, that are oh-for against Roger.  In this case, 0 for 2 for the Spaniard.

Finally, what’s up with Novak Djokovic?  Marco Chiudinelli has been a friend of Roger’s as a fellow Swiss.  His ranking has never been particularly high, and one might argue, at 28, he’s playing well as he ever has, whatever that might mean for a journeyman player.  Djokovic found himself a set down against Chiudinelli and scratching his head.  Shots he normally makes, he was missing.  Three quick sets later, Novak had righted the ship to a victory.  He didn’t play spectacular, but he didn’t really need to.  Djokovic seems vulnerable to such patches, so he has to be relieved that the patchy play was short, and he had the win.