What a difference a few months make.

Nikolay Davydenko, the defending champ at Shanghai, has been out of sorts ever since his return to tour.  Last year, in 2009, Davydenko had injury issues.  He returned just before the French Open, and lost to Robin Soderling.  Davydenko hit his stride just after the US Open winning Shanghai and the year-end championship.  He came, oh-so-close, to eliminating Roger Federer at the Australian Open.  Then, at Indian Wells, after beating Ernests Gulbis, Davydenko found out his left wrist was broken, and he had to take time off tour–again.

This time, he returned after the French, and the resurgent Davydenko, playing his best tennis ever, has not been the same.  He’s struggled against players he used to beat, and one wonders if he’ll ever regain the form that let him beat the best in the game: Federer, Nadal, del Potro, Djokovic.

Davydenko recently lost to Zverev, and realizes his chances to qualify for the eight-man year end championships are dwindling quickly.  Davydenko appears to be playing with a new Dunlop, a company he signed with earlier in the year.  With his balding looks, he’s never been one to make a lot of money on endorsements, so when Dunlop wanted to dress him head-to-toe and have him use their racquets, he jumped at the rare opportunity.  Davydenko used his Prince for a while, but one wonders if Davydenko’s struggles are similar to Djokovic when he switched to Head back in 2009.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer’s return to action against big John Isner lead to yet another ‘tweener.  This time, his opponent, Isner, volleyed the shot, but flubbed it otherwise.  Isner was embarrassed to miss this shot, facepalming after Fed had done it to him again.

Andy Murray had a relatively comfortable win over Jeremy Chardy in straight sets.  Tomas Berdych has struggled to regain the form that lead him deep in the French and Wimbledon, and lost to Garcia-Lopez.  Although Garcia-Lopez recently won Bangkok, a player of Berdych’s caliber should be winning more often.  Some will chalk the one month superlative play as more fluke than trend.

Djokovic shows that he’s still one of the best post US Open players.  He handily dismissed Richard Gasquet who beat Ernests Gulbis in the previous round.  Djokovic had a comfortable win over Ljubicic in the previous round.

Soderling and Ferrer are currently playing.  The two played at Wimbledon where Soderling won in 5.  Soderling beat Ferrer in Bastad, but Ferrer returned the favor last week in Beijing.  So they’ve been seeing each other a lot lately.