TENNIS in DEPTH.

France’s Richard Gasquet produced a superb performance to send sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko crashing out of the US Open in the second round.

Gasquet, who won the junior title at Flushing Meadows in 2002, claimed his first grand slam win of the year in the first round after early exits in Australia and Paris and missing Wimbledon with a rib injury.

And the enigmatic 24-year-old carried on where he had left off against Germany’s Simon Greul, dismissing Davydenko by the same scoreline of 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Davydenko, who missed 11 weeks of the season after breaking his wrist in March, is the highest seed to fall in New York so far, joining seventh seed Tomas Berdych and ninth seed Andy Roddick in making an early exit.

Bookmark It

Defending champion Nikolay Davydenko will open his campaign in round two against Frenchman Florent Serra, who beat Evgeny Korolev 7-6 (9/7) 6-3. Other winners included Jarkko Nieminen, Jeremy Chardy and Fabio Fognini.

Davydenko’s defence has already got a little easier with the news number two seed David Ferrer has withdrawn with a right shoulder injury, and fourth seed Gael Monfils is also out with an ankle problem.

Last year’s runner-up Paul-Henri Mathieu crashed out in the first round of the German Open in Hamburg when he fell in three sets to the Spanish qualifier Pere Riba.

His 1-6 6-0 6-3 defeat was Mathieu’s eighth first-round loss in his last nine tournaments and means the former world number 12 is destined to slide further outside the world’s top 50.

Home favourite Florian Mayer advanced with a 6-4 6-1 win over Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas but elsewhere there was disappointment as Andreas Beck, Mischa Zverev, Simon Greul and Bjorn Phau all lost.

Bookmark It

World number 88 Daniel Gimeno-Traver pulled off a major upset in the second round of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart with a 7-6 (9/7) 2-6 6-1 win over top seed Nikolay Davydenko.

The Russian world number six was made to pay for squandering a set point chance in the opening set and was ultimately well beaten by the Spaniard, who had never previously beaten a top 10 player in his career.

Third seed Gael Monfils moved closer to his third tour semi-final of the year but only after pulling out a gruelling 6-4 5-7 6-4 win over Spain’s Pablo Andujar in a match which pushed beyond two hours.

Marco Chiudinelli and Florian Mayer also booked their quarter-final places on Thursday night, Juan Carlos Ferrero recovered from losing the first set to Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and triumphed 6-7 (7/1) 7-6 (7/3) 6-2.

Bookmark It

Despite not having played in months, David Nalbandian will open Argentina’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group quarterfinal tie in Russia, against the world No. 6, Nikolay Davydenko, while Mikhail Youzhny faces Leonardo Mayer in Friday’s second rubber.

It’s set to be a tall order for the 28-year-old Nalbandian, who missed Wimbledon because of injury, and the Cordoba native has slipped out of the world’s Top 100 finding himself at 153 in the rankings. However, Nalbandian always seems to save his best for Davis Cup, and was instrumental in helping his country pull off a surprise victory in Sweden in March, winning both his matches.

“David is a special guy, he’s a guy who has a lot of confidence and reads the game very well, he’s a guy who has a lot of variability which is enough to trouble any player,” commented his captain, Tito Vazquez.

Davydenko should prove to be a much tougher opponent, and the Russian got the better of his Argentine rival in their last Davis Cup meeting in Buenos Aires almost two years ago. Despite his vastly superior ranking, the world No. 6 is aware Nalbandian is always a threat, but believes his extra playing time over the last few months could prove to be crucial.

“I don’t know if he will be more confident, as I have played a few matches, some of which went to five sets, while he hasn’t really played since the clay-court season.”

Davydenko has also had his injury problems and had to sit out the clay-court season because of a wrist injury. He says he’s feeling fine and came through Wimbledon unscathed, but Nalbandian says he’s hoping he may be able to catch the Russian cold.

“He’s coming back from injury too so I think it’s going to be tough for both of us.”

Bookmark It

Nikolay Davydenko became the highest seed to crash out of the men’s singles at this year’s Wimbledon when he was beaten in four sets by Daniel Brands in the second round on Wednesday evening.

The seventh seed looked set for an easy ride against his 22-year-old German opponent when he won the opening set but Brands hit back to triumph 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (10/8), 6-1.

The result does not come as a complete surprise, with Davydenko having missed

three months of the season with a wrist injury before returning to action at Halle a fortnight ago.

Brands, the world number 98, next faces Romanian 31st seed Victor Hanescu, who beat Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-3.

Bookmark It

Marin Cilic became the first big-name casualty of Wimbledon 2010 when he lost in the first round, but Nikolay Davydenko narrowly avoided joining him through the exit door.

The 11th-seeded Croat, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open and rated as a dark horse by some in SW19, slumped to a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Florian Mayer.

The German triumphed 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7/1) at the All England Club.

Mayer reached the quarter-finals on his Wimbledon debut back in 2004 and will be hopeful of another good run after this result.

Davydenko, meanwhile, had to dig deep before finally seeing off Kevin Anderson in a five-set thriller which lasted more than four hours.

The Russian enjoyed his last visit to London – he won the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena last November – but it appeared his return was turning sour when he fell two sets down to the big-serving South African, who finished with 36 aces.

Davydenko only recently returned to the tour after suffering a broken wrist earlier in the year and he looked a little rusty in the opening exchanges.

But he showed plenty of character to turn the match round, much to the delight of the crowd on Court One, and he recovered to post a 3-6 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 9-7 victory.

Novak Djokovic recovered from an early onslaught by Olivier Rochus and a mid-match closing of the Centre Court roof to book his place in the Wimbledon second round on Monday.

Djokovic, who trailed 3-1 in career meetings against the feisty 5-ft-5 Belgian, looked set for an early exit after Rochus’s crisp groundstrokes and shrewd shot placement gave him a two sets to one lead.

But Djokovic seemed reinvigorated once fading light prompted the closure of the roof after the third set and clinched the fourth before going on to seal a 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-2 triumph.

The Serb will play American Taylor Dent in the second round.

Bookmark It

Davydenko has spent the last three months sidelined due to injury, which could explain why it took the second-seeded Russian so much effort to beat Germany’s Simon Greul. In the end, he gained the upper hand with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 win.

“I was completely nervous to start with. I had to get back into the swing of things after my injury break,” analysed Nikolay Davydenko after his successful comeback. Just like Simon Greul, he created numerous break points in the first set. But up to the score of 5-5, none were actually taken. But then the game started to warm up. Simon Greul had defended three break points already come his sixth service game, but Davydenko did not miss his fourth opportunity.

“It was a tough game for me. The longer an injury absence endures, the harder it is to come back,” he said. “I am happy to be able to play here in Germany again.”

Roger Federer eased into the second round of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on Tuesday.

After taking the first set, Federer broke Nieminen’s serve at the start of the second and won in just over an hour.

Federer was playing as the second-ranked player for the first time in 11 months, after Rafael Nadal returned to the No. 1 spot with his victory in the French Open on Sunday.

Also, Mikhail Youzhny became the third seeded player to be knocked out of the tournament after losing to German wild card Nicolas Kiefer 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Bookmark It

Nikolay Davydenko, the reigning Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion, will stage his comeback  at the 18th edition of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, starting on Monday.

The Russian has been out of competition since mid-March with a scaphoid bone fracture to his left wrist. Davydenko sustained the injury when falling during his semi-final match against Robin Soderling at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam in February.

Not having been diagnosed with the fracture immediately, Davydenko continued playing and won matches at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells before being forced to stop playing after getting the correct diagnosis.

 “I’ve never practiced as much as I am at the moment, and I came back being stronger than before when returning from injuries in the past,” admitted Davydenko, who has been practising at his brother, Eduard’s, tennis academy and doing rehabilitation work in Cologne. “I’m already hitting my backhand 60 to 70 per cent.

“I need match practice and I will get this on the grass courts at the Gerry Weber Open,“ added the Russian, who will make his fourth appearance in Halle.

Bookmark It