Davydenko surprises himself

Aug 27, 2008 - 9:24 PM By Simon Lewis PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- Nikolay Davydenko surprised himself with his smooth progress into the second round at the U.S. Open.

The Russian cruised past first-round opponent Dudi Sela, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, at Louis Armstrong Stadium and admitted he had not been expecting such an encouraging start to the final Grand Slam of the season.

"It's very surprising that I was playing good for the first round," Davydenko said. "Because I'm always nervous and my confidence is not so great just at the beginning of the tournament.

"But I played good all three sets, I was fighting good and I had very good concentration."

Davydenko's performance against the world No. 76 came less than two weeks after his admission during the Beijing Olympics that he was having trouble motivating himself.

But Davydenko said he would not struggle with that problem at Flushing Meadows.

"I've been tired all year, but I've just been concentrating and preparing for some tournaments," Davydenko said Wednesday. "Now is the biggest tournament and the last tournament for this year, and I didn't have great results in the (other) Grand Slams."

Davydenko also added to the notion presented by rivals James Blake and Andy Murray that with four-time defending champion Roger Federer struggling for form and having lost his top ranking and Wimbledon title to Rafael Nadal, this year's U.S. Open was wide open.

"This year was not so great for (Federer) and maybe he's tired," Davydenko said. "You can't be No. 1 forever. You never know what can be happening in the U.S. Open, but there's still Nadal, (Novak) Djokovic.

"For this time, I can say this can be like this, that the top six, eight guys can win the U.S. Open, because I didn't see some great results from Federer this year."

Davydenko even said he had recaptured some of that lost motivation as a result of Federer's new perceived vulnerability.

"I didn't play well after losing in the first round at Wimbledon and I was losing mentally and losing everything," he said. "I didn't want to really play tennis, I didn't want to prepare for the tournament, which was why I didn't play very good last time in places like Toronto and Cincinnati."