THE TennisReporters.net NEWSLETTER: SATURDAY,
JANUARY 22, NO. 112
Davydenko hardly gets noticed Nicolay on why Maria ignores him: "Ask
Sharapova"
Roddick hoping Agassi signs up for Davis Cup
By Sandra Harwitt, Special to TennisReporters.net
Siggi Bucher
Tim Henman was flat in his straight-set
loss to Nicolay Davydenko.
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN –
Russian Nicolay Davydenko if flying so far under the radar screen
at this Australian Open that even upsetting seventh-seeded Tim Henman
didn't get him an appointment in the main interview room after the
match.
There's no denying that Timothy Henry Henman OBE [that's Order of
the British Empire to those who don't know and it is an honor bestowed
upon people directly from Queen Elizabeth] was of ill form on the
day. He was flat on his serve, flat on his volleys and flat
from the baseline, making him an easy 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 target for Davydenko.
Henman was so off that one well-known member of the British media
got a bit saucy, reiterating the possibility that OBE might really
stand for Order of the Backhand Error. And that could be an accurate
assumption since Henman only had three backhand winners during the
whole miserable encounter.
"I was a hundred percent out there," said Henman, when
asked if there was physically anything wrong with him. "I think
I heard [Britain Elena] Baltacha say she got her ass kicked yesterday,
and unfortunately I fall into the same bracket."
Interestingly, the person most surprised by Henman getting kicked
in his butt was the person doing the kicking.
"I was surprised it was really easy for me, easy for me to
break his serve," said Davydenko, to a handful of reporters
in a small interview cubicle. "Before, when we've played, he
was very good at the net and too good for me."
Davydenko didn't arrive at his opinion lightly. Not only has Henman
won their two previous encounters at the '03 Washington and TMS
Paris tournaments with the exact same score of 6-3, 6-4, but on
both occasions Henman went on to win the title.
Now that Davydenko has reached his first Grand Slam round-of-16,
you would think that he'd be brimming with confidence. But he's
so low key he comes across as having little competitive edge.
In fact, according to Davydenko, one thing he's not trying to do
is play catch up to Russia's top player Marat Safin, the '00 US
Open champ.
"Safin's number one and he can stay number one," Davydenko
said. "Me, I'm number two and it's okay. I don't want to say
that I want to be better than Marat. If I play against him, I try
to win for sure. I want to play good and be the best I can, but
I'm not crazy like the [Russian] women."
What Davyenko was referring to was that the Russian women –
Anastasia Myskina, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana
Kuznetsova – are very competitive with each other and that
aspect pushes the next one to succeed because they always want to
be better than the next one. This apparently is not the case with
the few Russian men in the game.
"The Russian men, their tennis is different than the women,"
he said. "The women, they're all Top 10. When Myskina win,
everybody else wants to win because they want to be Russian No.
1."
Susan Mullane/
Camerawork USA
ATP
Maria Sharapova
Nicolay Davydenko
Davydenko on why Maria ignores him: "Ask
Sharapova" Davydenko was even more pointed than Safin
was the other day when he said that he doesn't really consider Sharapova
a Russian. While Safin acknowledged that both he and Kuznetsova
left in their early teens to train in Spain, that they still go
back to Russia. While Davydenko spent a great deal of time training
in Germany and currently consider his brother's home in Germany
is home base, he still spends time in Russia.
There's no secret that Sharapova, while saying she feels like a
Russian, spends little or not time in the country of her birth since
leaving there when she was six.
"I don't know Sharapova," Davydenko said. When he further
intimated that she doesn't even talk to him, he was asked why and
his reply was "Ask Sharapova."
Davydenko, who plays Guillermo Cañas of Argentina in the
next round, was in Thailand when the tsunami hit in late December.
He was practicing with Paradorn Srichaphan, but they were located
on the Pacific Ocean side of the country.
Roddick hoping Agassi signs up for
Davis Cup
Just in case Andre Agassi thinks Patrick McEnroe is the only one
hoping he'll give the nod to Davis Cup, Andy Roddick weighed in
with welcoming arms after his third round win over Jurgen Melzer.
"Oh, I think we would all welcome him with open arms,"
Roddick said. "I think that can do nothing but positive things.
Selfishly, I'd love to get in there and learn a lot more from him.
You know, whatever he decides, whatever his reasons are for playing
or not playing, I'm sure they're very, very good ones."
Roddick said he had a brief conversation with Agassi regarding the
subject, but just to let him know he would look forward to playing
on the same team if he decides to put Davis Cup in his schedule.
"I've thrown it in there, but not too much," he said.
"I kind of just wanted to let him know that we would like it.
You know, either way, I understand. But he kind of has the
support of our team. That's kind of where I wanted to just
get that point across. But as far as anything else, you know, I'm
not going to be on him all the time. I think that's between
him and Patrick."
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