I believe more people now recognise the talent of this player which for some reasons has been underrated for most part of his career.

I was just checking his ATP points and was amazed to see that he has played 31 tounaments over the last 12 months while federer hoovers around 18 only.

Here is the list of tournies Davy played outside the TMS (9 + 1 Masters) and GS (4) plus his results.

9-Oct-06 Moscow Russia W 250
21-Aug-06 New Haven CT, U.S.A. W 200
31-Jul-06 Sopot Poland W 175
22-May-06 Poertschach Austria W 175
10-Jul-06 Bastad Sweden F 120
2905


19-Feb-07 Rotterdam The Netherlands S 110
1-Jan-07 Doha Qatar S 110
23-Apr-07 Barcelona Spain Q 75
11-Sep-06 Beijing China Q 40
26-Feb-07 Dubai U.A.E. R16 25
23-Oct-06 St. Petersburg Russia R16 25
8-Jan-07 Sydney Australia R16 15
24-Jul-06 Kitzbuhel Austria R32 5
19-Jun-06 's-Hertogenbosch The Netherlands R32 5
12-Jun-06 London / Queen's Club England R32 5
29-Apr-07 Estoril Portugal R32 0
12-Feb-07 Marseille France R32 0

What is killing here and is also most likely the reason of his failure in GSs is the little care he gives to his preparation of those events. We can see above that last year he played in Poertschach?????? the week before the FO and in New Heaven before the USO!!! Worse he won them both so not only grabbing the entry fee but also making sure he gets as little rest as possible.

I like the guy but it really annoys me to see him waste his chances at bigger events cause he is trying to grab as much money as possible.

Guess where he is now, days before the FO?

Back in Porst....Poersv.....Posterbach....Poertschach!

He is a joke!

Ultimately, the choice is up to him. If he wants to collect as much money as he can by winning lots of smaller tournaments, its up to him. Some people are just happy to be journeymen I guess.

Good old Davy gets a bad name by some folk sometimes but I agree he does have talent. You don't push Nadal that hard on clay without having some ability that's for sure.

I think he tries to maximise his talent by playing in all those tournaments, but it would be nice to see him make a GS Final. He has in the past made the quarters and semi (last years US Open where he was beaten by Feds) so his prep couldn't have been that bad. He does have some GS pedigree but not quite that of a nearly man like Henman yet.

Maybe if he took a rest before the GS Tournies he could go further and perhaps be a runner up or even, gulp, a GS winner?

Davydonkey for Wimbledon!!!

I wouldn't call Davydenko a journeyman.

Dick Norman, now he's a journeyman. Is he playing RG this year?

Incidently Davydenkos twin is Nadia Petrova roflmao

He's hardly a journeyman. I have no idea why he does this, I think it would be helpful to hear it form the man himself as to why eh favours this kind fo schedule. Anyway it might nto all be about money, and even if it is Davydenko never gets much publicity so makes much less money off court then many others, so maybe that si why :shrug: .

I think reaching the Top 10 (or even Top 20) and maintaining a consistent presence within it (we're talking two years in the Top 10 for the Russian, much of that spent in the Top 5) disqualifies one for 'journeyman' status. Really.

We can talk about Spadea, Goldstein, Lopez, Pless and their ilk, players who have played for yonks and have zero to one titles to show for it. They might have a good run at one Slam or another, notch the occasional high-profile upset, or string together several wins at one tourney or another but for the most part make no impact on the higher levels of tennis--and this is no bad thing. How else would we fill up a 128-player draw at the Slams? :P But more seriously, hard work is no less commendable than natural talent and you just can't break into the Top 100 without some combination of the two. Playing to one's potential is a contribution to sport whether that potential is GOAT (and good grief do I detest that acronym) or just being that guy who pushed the eventual finalist to five sets at that one Slam.

As far as Davydenko goes, I don't think he's been anywhere near anonymous at the Slam level: he's reached three consecutive QFs at the AO, he's reached two semis (USO last year and RG the year before) and another QF besides at RG. Wimbledon is by far his worst Slam, with a passel of first-round exits and second-round as best result, probably because taking the ball on the rise as he likes to do is much trickier coming off the low bounce of grass.

He could probably stand to play a few less tournies, but he's said he prefers actual match practice to hitting the practice courts endlessly. I don't know that the heavy schedule necessarily detracts from his Slam performance; he won Pörtschach (when it was held in St Pölten) prior to reaching that RG semi, and won New Haven en route to the USO semi (where he ran into someone named Federer). It's also not unfairly gaming the system as far as points: a player only has the five best results to go by, so it's impossible to get a high ranking without turning in a good performance in at least some of the bigger events (right now he's got a SF, QF, QF in Slams and a W, SF, and a few R16s at the Masters events). It does give him a bit of a buffer, though--if you play enough events as top or second seed you'll pick up some titles, and even if you fail to defend some bigger points (as in Estoril) you'll more often than not have another good result to take its place straightaway (as Bastad did).

In fact I think a player such as Nalbandian would do well to learn from the Russian's example; if he had more of a work ethic he wouldn't be spiralling into irrelevance right now. He's a classic example of talent by itself not being enough.

Playing lots of tournaments is just his approach to the game. It might work better for him than trying to do a more limited schedule and spending more time on practice courts. I've heard people accuse him of just being greedy for points, but all those smaller tournaments don't really help that much, since he can only count the best five. The money may be a factor, because Davydenko doesn't have the lucrative endorsements that many of the other top players have, but I can't fault him too much for that, if he needs to play a lot of tourneys to pay the bills.

Go back and look at the promo pictures from the Masters Cup, and you'll see that Davy was the only one in the photos who didn't have a sponsor's logo on his shirt. ;)

I think it is clearly for money. The entry fees they get is sometimes bigger than the price money. It is a mentally unfortunately and I certainly do not think it advantages him in the big events.

he was injured and tired before this year AO and was very tired in the Masters (cost him probably his place for the semi) and will be very likely tired at the FO this year.

he played fantastically at the Paris TMS and I am convinced that the top 2 would have suffered against him had they played there. I had put £5 on him while he was 63/1 to win. That was one of my best bet (you understand why I like the guy ;) )

Anyway...he has now a lovely wife and will retire quite healthy so, he is quite smart after all.

He is certainly not a journey man!

But they've played a similar number of matches.

Johnny Mac was another player who much preferred to get his practice and conditioning by playing matches rather than hitting the practice courts.. :)

Kolya is a solid player and as manzi pointed out, you really can't sustain a presence in the top 10 without some talent and of course a god amount of hard work. So fair play to him! :ok:.

He's also not one of the biggest players on tour either, and generally the smaller players don't have as much weaponry as the taller ones. Examples that spring to mind include the Rochus brothers, HT Lee, Hewitt. There are also the players of slighter build such as Robredo, JCF.

There is definitely a place for the smaller terrier-like players in the game, always has been (although Pebs and a few others might beg to differ with Hewitt!! :lol: )

So instead of being 'No Weapons', he should be referred to as the 'The Pocket-Rocket' .. :P

Great post Manzi - good to see a few people spring to Davydenko's defence. Anybody that suggests that Davydenko is lacking in talent obviously hasn't seen, let alone played, a high level of tennis. To time the ball at all is a pretty mean feat, but to take the ball early as Davy does is very impressive. He works hard, but so does every player in the top 100. When you stop working hard, with all the talent in the world, it's tough to compete with the fit, hungry guys - the Scud and Nalbandian are good examples.
I get the feeling that looking good is often mistaken for talent, so players like Davydenko and 'over-achievers' like Courier (how did he do so well with THAT backhand? If that's not talent, I don't know what is!) don't get as much recognition as they deserve.

Yep I know. I had a discussion on another forum cause I thought the bye for the top seeds in the TMS was justified and use this example of Fed playing a minimum tournaments while still playing more match than anybody else. Might not be true this year though.

I seem to remember players like Vilas and Connors playing a ridiculous amount of matches,something the older guys used to do all the time.Now obviously the main difference is the physicality of the game,but having said that Davydenko needs competition and as has already been said he needs matches for practice,something he has gone on record as saying.

Anyone think of this,Tennis is a sport for these guys,but it is also a job.I work purely for the money I recieve.I'm sorry but I don't believe any of these guys plays purely for the titles,noble though it sounds,getting good money while playing a sport you love.None of them would play for nothing.
I'm sure if tennis were like football where you had to negotiate your wages then you would see money was important to all professionals.

Not knocking anyone here,but I reckon Davydenko earns far less than other guys in the top10.So why label him a money chaser,doesn't make sense. :shrug:

Although I am of the same opinion as Tenez that he could prep better for the slams.Surely he could rest the week before every slam in order to rest briefly and then play some competitive practice sets at the venue.
Maybe he could bet some of that money that he constantly wins. ;)

Yes those guys are professionels and money is the biggest part of their motivation bar the top 2 now maybe. Even ranking points have big bonuses attached to their sponsors contracts and though we might think it is a pure ego thing, being a top 5 has huge lucrative returns.

I would think that any player doing less than $5M in price money is likely to struggle for the rest of their life unless they manage a good reconversion, that is find a good sustainable job/activity after their tennis career. Davydenko just passed that amount so he should be ok!

I think the reason he struggled with sponsors besides being shadowed by Marat was that he actually never showed a passion for the big occasions. He has this number one placid attitude like Borg and Federer...without of course being the number one. Had he been able to provide great slam finals matches he may have been a bit more popular but his business approach has certainly killed a lot of enthusism amongst the fans as we can see even here on this forum of knowledgeable tennis fans.

The example that really annoyed me with Davydenko is when at the beginnig of the season, before the AO, he was told to rest for a month following his ankle injury and when asked in an interview about it he said something like " I am Russian and russians don't rest, they keep on going". Clearly he arrived at the AO and once again lost a 5 setter against Haas after being 2 sets to 1 up. He was also nackered after his 4 set match against Federer the previous year.

So surely something must be wrong with his preparation, especially when we know that, in average, he makes the opponent run more than he does.