World No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko put on an excellent display of tennis on Thursday evening to defeat Marcos 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
The Russian made a fast start to the match, dictating play and not allowing Marcos any foothold in the points as he raced to a 3-0, double-break lead. Marcos worked hard to find a way back into the set, recovering one of the service breaks with a rifling backhand up the line and holding serve to reduce the deficit to 3-2.
However, strong serving from Davydenko – the second seed won 89 per cent on points behind his first serve in the opening set - denied Marcos any chance to break back again and the Russian closed out the set with a third break of Marcos’ serve.
The 28-year-old Davydenko began the second set in the same dazzling form that saw him triumph in Doha at the start of the year and lead Federer by a set and a break in the Australian Open quarter-finals. A stunning forehand crosscourt winner earned him two break points in the fourth game and he converted with another winning forehand up the line.
In a slightly farcical end to the match, which saw the umpire call the score at 30/30 instead of 15/40 on Marcos’ serve at 2-5, Davydenko won the next point as Marcos netted a forehand off a strong return from the Russian and the umpire, realising his mistake, rightly awarded the match to Davydenko after 77 minutes.
Marcos will now turn his attentions to the Open 13 in Marseille, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament that begins on Monday.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the latest news on Marcos.
