Two days after declaring "I am not Paris Hilton," Nikolay Davydenko is suddenly finding himself a center of attention at the Australian Open. "It's interesting. We're not talking about tennis. We're talking about my life," he said after his second-round win. "It's my first experience like this in the press."
The Russian has always been quick with his quips, producing one of his first memorable English utterances in 2005 with this fishing story: "I was there for two hours and caught five, then my girlfriend [now wife] came and caught three in 10 minutes. That's women for you."
The quote lingered in the same obscurity as its owner. But now, with two straight wins over both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Davydenko has everyone hanging on his words. At both the ATP World Tour Finals in London and so far at the Australian Open, the player once known largely for triggering a match-fixing scare in 2007 has picked up where his recently-retired compatriot Marat Safin left off -- bluntness and comedy mixed with his own inimitable syntax. From his Wednesday press conference:
On whether he drinks vodka: "Yes... I don't drink so much because, you see, I'm skinny. I mix only. Sometimes I drink clear vodka, sometimes mixed with Red Bull. Little bit get power in night club or disco."
On making frequent references to money: "Because we are Russian. Russian always talking about money. And you know all Russian can get only cash, not like you guys, only credit cards also."
On his family plans: "Really, I would like have kids now, like Federer already two have, or Hewitt. You know, we have the same age. But my wife don't want to stay at home. She travel with me now... is important time. Now I'm top 10. She scared about if I start to, with kids, lose tennis and go down, stray. That's because I start to miss and I want to go home. I don't want to practicing. That's what's is different."
On his wife's tennis knowledge: "She analyze because she's travel with me already six years. Because in sitting with my brother, and brother always talking about what I did, right, left, everything, forehand. She can coaching me already."