The fact that the women's tennis “World Cup” brought our fans mostly disappointments should be considered an occasion for optimism before the start of the men's eight gathering. Just because there is nowhere to worsen the cheerleader mood. But Nikolay Davydenko, the only Russian participant in the tournament in Shanghai, is quite capable of raising it. His company in the "Golden Group" was composed by Rafael Nadal, Tommy Robredo and James Blake.
The company is strong, to be sure (and where to get wimps among the first eight racket of the world?). However, the Red Group, which was personally led by Roger Federer, is certainly stronger. And the matter is not only “great and terrible”, whose quotes are simply murderous: you can bet Federer with a coefficient of 1.3, get to the finals - 1.1, but you can’t bet at all! Do not forget also that the tournament in Shanghai is held on “fast” synthetic courts, on which two other representatives of the “Red Group” are very strong - US Open finalist Andy Roddick and powerful Croat Ivan Lubichich. It was to them that the rumor predicted the struggle for the second semifinal ticket, and their Sunday match met expectations. Equal tennis lasted about two hours, but in the third set the American was noticeably fresher. Federer, meanwhile, opened the tournament with a match that was a repeat of last year’s finals. In composition, but not in the game and the result. A year ago, if you remember, the Swiss unexpectedly lost in the decisive Shanghai match to David Nalbandian, and lost after he easily won two starting sets. Now the Argentine was also honored for a feat, however, the breakthrough in the starting set was probably premature. Unlike the finals, group matches of the Asia-Pacific World Championship are played out of three sets, and in this format it is almost impossible to beat Federer. Having dedicated the starting game to the “warm-up” and losing it, the Swiss “switched gear” and literally flew away from his opponent, winning two sets with the same score 6: 1.
The "Golden Group" begins to play today, and Nikolai Davydenko will have to fight with Spaniard Tommy Robredo, whom he beat a little more than a week ago in the semifinals of the "Masters" in "Bercy". It is worth noting that the Shanghai coverage (as well as the shape of the rivals) is very close to Paris, in which the Spaniard had almost no chance to beat the Russian, which, incidentally, did not escape the attention of the bookmakers: to put Davydenko on the success in the match with Robredo almost like that as meaningless as Federer’s victories: the coefficient on Davydenko is 1.2. By the way, in the list of favorites of the whole championship, Nikolai takes the third line with a coefficient of 10.0 after Federer (as already mentioned - 1.3) and Rafael Nadal (9.0).
Tournament Series Masters
Shanghai
Men
Red group
1 R. Federer (SEC) (-) - - 3: 6, 6: 1, 6: 1
4. I. Lyubichich (KHOR) - (-) 4: 6, 7: 6, 1: 6 -
5. E. Roddick (USA) - 6: 4, 6: 7, 6: 1 (-) -
7. D. Nalbandyan (ARG) 6: 3, 1: 6, 1: 6 - - (-)
Yellow group
2. R. Nadal (COI) (-) - - -
3. N. Davydenko (ROS) - (-) - -
6. T. Robredo (COI) - - (-) -
8. J. Blake (USA) - - - (-)
Matches November 13
Nadal - Blake
Davydenko - Robredo
Semifinals of the tournament - November 18
Final - November 19