Nikolay Davydenko announces retirement

[herios]

http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/10/42/Moscow-Thursday-Davydenko-Retires.aspx

Good luck to Kolea in his future business career and enjoy his family life to its fullest
:clap

 

[shawnbm]

We all know he did it to spite Rafa since his record is what it is!!! Lol

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I was just starting the thread Herios. You are fast .

Over 20 tournament wins , some 1000s and a WTF. A top tenner for years. He had a game to bother almost anyone when he was on.

Good luck to him.

 

[Federberg]

He was some player in his day. Even if a bit tainted with the whole match fixing thing. Somehow I doubt he was ever guilty of stuff like that. It simply doesn't make sense from a risk/reward point of view for a player who for years earned in the millions to waste his time doing something like that. Has any other top player ever been warned for having a nightmare serving day? Ridiculous..

 

[shawnbm]

All kidding aside, many here know I've always enjoyed the tenacity and baseline game of The Little Russian That Could. This is a small guy who did a helluva lot with his talent in the era of big power tennis from the backcourt. I wish him and his wife the very best.

 

[kskate2]

Cheers Niko, you will be missed. Such a sweet striker of the ball. Enjoy your new life with family. :wave

 

[DarthFed]

Too bad but he has had a rough go of it the past few years so it is understandable. Great game to watch when on.

 

[Front242]

Sad to hear but could see it coming a mile off as he hasn't played in months. At least we have some great Youtube clips to watch over and over. One of the cleanest ball strikers out there along with Nishikori. In his prime he rarely made errors and was a total beast.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Man, this explains a lot of things: Apparently he used to practice indoors on wood surface (parquet most likely) as a kid in winters. That is the fastest, lowest bouncing, the most slippery surface I have ever experienced. You have to take the ball early or the ball is gone ! Now I know...

 

[GameSetAndMath]

He ends up being one of very few players with winning H2H against Bull. Good for him.

For someone of his level of achievement, he was not famous at all. A non-hardcore fan
of tennis (any member of this forum does not count) would probably not know him.

Unfortunately, has a tainted legacy due to match-fixing allegations. Of course, he
was investigated and let go off as they did not have enough evidence to indict him.
But, that is not the same as saying he did not do it. Also, he had a penchant for
making as much money (nothing wrong with it as long as he does only by legal means)
as he could by playing in lot of useless tournaments.

 

[Kieran]

We all know he did it to spite Rafa since his record is what it is!!! Lol

Yeah, I heard of fellers tanking matches to avoid Ralph, but to tank the rest of his career? :snigger

It's a pity but all good things come to an end. He's a bloke who punched above his weight, like Ferrer in some ways, without the pettiness towards linesmen. Typical Russian, he played too many stupid events just to coin it in. I hope he's happy in retirement though...

 

[Haelfix]

He was an interesting player. His best game came in an era when the courts where not quite ideal for him, so his peak in 04-07 was a little stymied (his serve was never great so he could never quite beat the Federer's of the world on super fast courts, but then he didn't quite have the power to stay with people on super slow hard courts either). But like Ferrer when balls changed and surface homogenization took over he started really turning it on.

Like a lot of early 2k players, he was chronically underrated and chronically underperformed relative to their talent level so its a little sad to see them retire without a slam. Still, such a beautiful and clean baseline game. Amongst the best that ever played in that regard, and will be studied in tennis academies forever.

 

[isabelle]

I already miss him, I liked him a lot. Good luck Kolay, be happy with Irina and Natalia

 

[El Dude]

He ends up being one of very few players with winning H2H against Bull. Good for him.

I'd say he's the only player whose winning H2H over Rafa really says anything. Hrbaty (3-1) played his matches against Rafa in 2003-05, so never saw Rafa in his prime. Corretja (2-0) only played Rafa in 2003, and everyone else is only 1-0 - mainly guys from long ago, except for Chris Guccione who beat Rafa in 2007, and of course Dustin Brown and Nick Kyrgios this year. It will be interesting to see how Kyrgios and Rafa match up again, whether Kyrgios will be the young buck that has Rafa's number or, more like, Rafa evokes the vengeful wrath of his Spaniard ancestors and utterly destroys him.

As for Davydenko, he's of a caliber of player that I personally find fascinating - among the best players never to win a Slam. Among diehard baseball fans (which I am) there's a slang term, "Hall of the Very Good," to denote those players who had very good careers, but shy of the Hall of Fame. Davydenko--along with players like Ferrer, Tsonga, Berdych, and retired players like Alex Corretja, Thomas Enqvist, Marcelo Rios, etc--fit the bill.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

So, another contemporary of Roger retires, while Roger is scheming to end the year as #1.

 

[El Dude]

So, another contemporary of Roger retires, while Roger is scheming to end the year as #1.

Some quick research. Roger was born in 1981. Here are the best players born within a year of him, 1980-82. Bold means still active.

1980:
Marat Safin
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Fernando Gonzalez

1981:
Roger Federer
Lleyton Hewitt
Nikolay Davydenko
Mardy Fish
Feliciano Lopez

1982:
Andy Roddick
David Ferrer
David Nalbandian
Guillermo Coria
Mikhail Youzhny
Tommy Robredo

So if I'm right, and those are probably the 14 greatest players roughly Federer's age, less than half (6) are left (and this doesn't include Radek Stepanek, Ivan Ljubicic, and James Blake, who were born in 1979; Of course Ivo Karlovic, also born in 1979, and Tommy Haas, born in 1978, are both still active). I'm also not including lesser players like Nicolas Mahut, Julien Benneteau etc, who never entered the top 20.

 

[tented]

Sad to hear but could see it coming a mile off as he hasn't played in months. At least we have some great Youtube clips to watch over and over. One of the cleanest ball strikers out there along with Nishikori. In his prime he rarely made errors and was a total beast.

Ironically, you and I were just talking about him the other day. I believe I was the one who even said it feels like he's already retired because we rarely get to see him anymore. Did we jinx him, Front?

I will miss him a lot. Already do! I've written many times over the years how much I used to enjoy watching him take on Rafa. It was fascinating.

He was a hard worker, too. When he was a steady presence in the Top 10, nobody played as many tournaments as Davydenko. Shawn's description is perfect: The Little Russian That Could.

Best of luck!

 

[herios]

Sad to hear but could see it coming a mile off as he hasn't played in months. At least we have some great Youtube clips to watch over and over. One of the cleanest ball strikers out there along with Nishikori. In his prime he rarely made errors and was a total beast.

Ironically, you and I were just talking about him the other day. I believe I was the one who even said it feels like he's already retired because we rarely get to see him anymore. Did we jinx him, Front?

I saw your discussion about Nikolay and wanted to make a comment because I knew about his retirement this week.
I read an article a week ago about his retirement this week in Moscow.
I thought initially he will play this week, but then I saw the draw and he was not in it. So I waited each day to see when the conference will take place.
He definitely made a good career and even without a slam, he has managed to win a few big titles, including the WTF. Good for him.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I have to post this Twitter from Courtney Nguyen regarding Davydenko's retirement.

"I am Russian,but I'm not Safin."

 

[Front242]

Well doh anyway if we jinxed him, tented Shame he didn't play the Moscow tournament to at least play a match on Russian soil before calling it a day though.