“He’s rolling back the years,” said one of the commentators during Nikolay Davydenko’s 7-5, 6-3 win over Richard Gasquet in Rotterdam today.
He was referring to Davydenko, of course, who had begun the match looking all of his 30 years and maybe a few more. The Russian went down 0-2 quickly, and without a little help from his opponent, it easily could have been 0-4. For much of the first set, he missed just about everything you can miss: Routine forehands into the net, routine volleys into the net, and a routine backhand he pulled wide to be broken for 2-4. By the end of the next game, Davydenko was even wilder. Down 2-5, he missed a forehand badly over the baseline; it looked like the second set was coming up soon, and that this former world No. 4 now ranked 49th was going down to his second straight-set defeat to Gasquet this month (the Frenchman beat him 6-3, 6-4 in Montpellier).
The thing was, even as he was missing, Davydenko was still winning the battle of court position. He was the one on top of the baseline, the one taking the ball on the rise, the one following his shots to the net. All he needed to do was find his range, which he did over the next three games. At 3-5, Davydenko reached 15-30 on Gasquet’s serve with an aggressive backhand. Then he watched as Gasquet missed a go-for-broke forehand from behind the baseline and double faulted to be broken.
From that point, the pattern was set and the match turned completely. Davydenko controlled the rallies, while Gasquet, giving up progressively more court position to accommodate his loopy strokes, scrambled. The Frenchman lives and dies on a risky, short-term strategy: his ability to create from a defensive position. In the second set, Davydenko, his winner count soaring, never gave him that chance. Gasquet spent his time between points throwing his hands up and asking his coach what he could possibly do. With good reason: Even the gods appeared to be against him. With Davydenko serving for the first set at 6-5, 30-30, Gasquet broke a string in the middle of a long rally. On the next point, Davydenko won the set with his first ace of the day.
In the end, it looked like the Gasquet we’ve come to know too well. He started promisingly, had moments when he seemed about to go microwave, but he couldn’t keep it up and quickly became deflated.
In the end, it looked like the Davydenko we used to know so well. He fired into the corners with precision and changed directions with ease. Next up for him, Roger Federer. We’ll see which of these 30-somethings can reel in more of the years tomorrow.
—Steve Tignor