Nikolay Davydenko has been struggling with his game ever since he came back from a broken left wrist around Wimbledon of last year.  Things were so bad that, during a Davis Cup match in Russia, Davydenko wanted to take himself out of the reverse singles and was only convinced by his wife to continue to play.  He did play and did win the reverse singles, but Russia ended up losing to Argentina anyway.

Davydenko is one of those high ranked players that isn’t quite photogenic enough to earn the big bucks.  It doesn’t help that he’s never reached the finals of a Slam.  He’s reached the semis four times, twice in the French Open, twice in the US Open.  He’s reached the quarterfinals six more times.  Davydenko’s problems have been several fold.

First, Davydenko doesn’t have the biggest serve.  This means he has to work to win his games.  He plays a relatively high risk game.  When he’s on, it looks effortless.  He’s able to take the ball off the ground.  He’s able to hit angles and go down the line.  Davydenko was getting good again at the end of 2009 after the US Open.  He beat Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, and del Potro during the post US Open season.  He also won the year-end championship taking out Federer and del Potro along the way.  Davydenko was playing his best tennis then and into January through the Australian Open.  He was threatening to knock Federer out of the Australian Open, but then his game totally collapsed.  He recovered enough to threaten to push to a fifth set, but it didn’t happen.

Davydenko’s success lead him to a deal with Dunlop who was going to clothe him head to toe and he would switch from his trusty Prince, which he credited with improving his game, to a Dunlop.  The clothing part was an easy change.  The racquet change was very slow to come.  He used a disguised Prince for quite some time.  It didn’t help that he got hurt at Indian Wells after beating Ernests Gulbis (actually, he was already hurt at Rotterdam, but continued to play).  He dropped out and returned at Wimbledon.

Fast forward to early-ish 2011 and Davydenko finally switches over to Dunlop.  He’s been fidgeting since.  He started off well at Doha reaching the finals, but that turned out to be a bit of a mirage.  He lost in ten opening round matches this year including 4 or 5 tournaments just before Washington DC.  In DC, he played OK.  He got past the initial round and he pushed Verdasco.  Verdasco hasn’t played too well for about a year either.  At least, Davydenko has won a tournament this year.

Davydenko at least opened his first round playing a qualifier, Flavio Cipolla.  This was a relatively positive match for Davydenko.  His game is still up and down, but he was able to be aggressive against Cipolla.  He was even up 5-1 in the second set looking very comfortable when he played a bad game, got broken, and Cipolla held to 5-3.  However, Davydenko held on to win his serve.

Of course, as his reward, he will face top seed, Novak Djokovic.  Davydenko might play even with Djokovic if he were at his prime, but since they played in the round robin back in the 2009 ATP World Tour Final, Davydenko’s game has gone down, and Djokovic has gone stratospheric.   The only saving grace is that, at times, Davydenko was starting to hit well.  But it’s one thing to hit well against Cipolla and it’s another to hit well against Djokovic.  Davydenko is going to have to be feeling good about his game, and then he might just keep it 6-4, 6-4 close.  Still, at this point in his career, Davydenko should be happy to keep the match close.

Juan Martin del Potro had a pretty easy time over Jarrko Nieminen.  Nieminen doesn’t have enough weapons to bother del Potro.  It doesn’t help that he hasn’t played a lot at the main ATP tour level.  His best years were about half a decade ago.  And it didn’t help Nieminen that he kept missing, the price one pays for trying to be more aggressive.  del Potro wasn’t even playing that well.  He was mostly being steady and using his big serve to good effect.

del Potro’s next opponent is Marin Cilic.  If Davydenko has been struggling since 2010 Wimbledon, then Cilic has been struggling since 2010 Australian Open.  Cilic made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open losing to Andy Murray.  At the time, everyone felt Cilic has superior movement and he was going to overtake del Potro.  He would make the big breakthrough.  Instead, Cilic’s game took a step backwards.  Cilic’s serve isn’t nearly as good as del Potro nor is his forehand.  His movement might be better, but at the top of the game, power is king.  What’s remarkable about del Potro’s return is that he is still trying to get back his power.  He’s been beating players by being steady and getting to lots of balls.  That’s impressive.

The two played earlier this year in Madrid where del Potro, still on his comeback trail, beat Cilic easily.  Cilic should do a little better because Montreal is hard courts, and that’s Cilic’s favorite surface.  Turns out, del Potro also likes it too, but del Potro should be able to get past Cilic.

Bernard Tomic is playing again.  He played some event between Australia and China, but otherwise has not played since Wimbledon.  With his rank a 68, he needed a wildcard to avoid playing qualifiers.  He faced Yen-Hsun Lu who had a lead in the first set with a break, but eventually got the break back and won the first set in a tiebreak.  He won the second set, 6-3.  He faces Tsonga in the next round.  Tsonga won the first set over Fabio Fognini, 6-4, but was down a break in the second.  He eventually broke back and was able to take the match to a tiebreak although he had chances to break Fognini and win the second set.  He dominated the tiebreak taking all 7 points.

Tsonga is still trying get back to the top ten.  Currently, his compatriot, Gael Monfils, is the highest ranked Frenchman.   Tsonga is now 16 in the world.  Despite this lofty rank, it makes him the fourth ranked Frenchman, behind Monfils, Gasquet, and Simon.  This is probably the strongest the French have been in the rankings in some time.  Tsonga probably has the most physically intimidating game of the top four.  He was the guy that took out Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.  He should be expected to handle young Bernard Tomic.  The key is whether Tomic’s unusual style will bother Tsonga or not.  I believe Tsonga’s power might give Tomic a bit too much to worry about.

In other results, Ivan Dodig beat Jeremy Chardy in straight sets to become Rafa’s first victim in the second round.  Karlovic and Bellucci won their matches as well.

Earlier in the day, the ATP gave Novak Djokovic a trophy for being number one in the world.  Given how long Federer and Nadal held that spot, it’s impressive for anyone to wrestle that away.  Djokovic gave a brief speech.  Earlier in the day, he and Tipsarevic had won their opening round doubles.  Nadal and Lopez lost to Berdych and Florian Mayer.

Tomorrow, the first and fourth seeds, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray will play.  Djokovic plays in the evening match.  Murray plays in the afternoon to cater to British crowds (they are 5 hours ahead).  del Potro, Cilic, Simon, and Gasquet will also play tomorrow.

Federer and Nadal should play Wednesday.