100 Facts About Nikolay Davydenko

Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko is a Russian former professional tennis player.

Nikolay Davydenko achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No 3 in November 2006.

Nikolay Davydenko started playing tennis at the age of 7 with his brother Eduard, nine years his senior.

Nikolay Davydenko motivated his brother's move by the fact Nikolay's professional growth at home was impossible.

In 1999, at the age of 18, Nikolay Davydenko changed his Ukrainian citizenship to the Russian one.

Nikolay Davydenko was motivated by the difficulties obtaining travel visa with the Russian passport.

Nikolay Davydenko speaks Russian as a native language, German as his second one, and English.

Nikolay Davydenko started playing at the age of seven with his brother, Eduard.

Nikolay Davydenko made his ATP debut at Amsterdam, reaching the semifinal.

Nikolay Davydenko finished the season with a quarterfinal showing in Basel.

In 2002, Nikolay Davydenko continued to play on both the ATP Tour and in Challenger events.

Nikolay Davydenko made huge strides on the ATP Tour in 2003.

Nikolay Davydenko opened the season with his first ATP title in Adelaide, defeating Kristof Vliegen in the final.

Nikolay Davydenko's season was backed up with solid performances on clay in Barcelona and St Polten, reaching the quarterfinal and final, respectively.

Nikolay Davydenko's progress continued in 2004, capturing two more titles for the second consecutive year.

Nikolay Davydenko backed up his win by reaching the semifinal in Stuttgart, losing to Guillermo Canas.

Nikolay Davydenko finished the season in the top 30 for the first time.

Nikolay Davydenko continued his solid form by reaching the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters and his first semifinal of a Grand Slam at the French Open.

Nikolay Davydenko lost in the semifinals of the 2005 French Open to Mariano Puerta in five close sets.

Nikolay Davydenko reached the top 10 for the first time after the 2005 French Open.

Nikolay Davydenko closed out the year by reaching the quarterfinals at the Cincinnati Masters and the Paris Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko repeated his quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, losing to Roger Federer in four tight sets.

Nikolay Davydenko had another solid clay-court season, reaching the final in Estoril and the quarterfinal, at the Hamburg Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko defended his title in Poertschach and reached the quarterfinal at the French Open for the second year.

Nikolay Davydenko's form continued after an early loss at Wimbledon with wins in Sopot and his first American win in New Haven.

Nikolay Davydenko reached his second Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open, losing to Roger Federer.

Nikolay Davydenko finished the season with a win in Moscow and his first career TMS title in Paris.

Nikolay Davydenko was slow to find his form in the clay court season, but finally did at the Rome Masters, losing in the semifinal to Rafael Nadal in an enthralling match.

Nikolay Davydenko then reached the semifinals of the US Open for the second consecutive year, before losing to Roger Federer in straight sets.

Nikolay Davydenko won his eleventh career title in Moscow, defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Nikolay Davydenko played in the Red group round robin, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer 2:0 sets, losing to Andy Roddick 2:1 sets, and beating Fernando Gonzales 2:0 sets, thus finishing 3rd in the group, meaning he did not reach the knockout stage.

Nikolay Davydenko started 2008 at the Australian Open, where he was seeded fourth.

Nikolay Davydenko won his first three matches in straight sets, but in the fourth round he lost to countryman Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.

Nikolay Davydenko then went on to win his biggest career title to date at the Miami Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko then reached the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko won his thirteenth career title in Poertschach, defeating Juan Monaco.

Nikolay Davydenko did not win back-to-back matches until the US Open.

Nikolay Davydenko reached the semifinals at the Paris Masters, losing to David Nalbandian.

Nikolay Davydenko beat Juan Martin del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the round-robin matches to progress to the semifinals, where he defeated Andy Murray to reach the final.

Nikolay Davydenko started the year at an exhibition in Abu Dhabi, which featured six of the world's best players.

Nikolay Davydenko defeated Andy Roddick, before being defeated by top seed Rafael Nadal.

Nikolay Davydenko defeated Daniel Kollerer in straight sets, but was forced to withdraw before his second-round match against Lukas Dlouhy because of a left heel injury.

The injury he sustained in Chennai earlier in the year returned, forcing Nikolay Davydenko to withdraw from the 1000 Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.

Nikolay Davydenko reached his second semifinal of the year in Estoril by eliminating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals, but was stopped by American James Blake.

Nikolay Davydenko was able to play at Roland Garros and convincingly advanced to the quarterfinals.

Nikolay Davydenko dropped a set apiece to Diego Junqueira and Stanislas Wawrinka and beat eighth seed Fernando Verdasco en route.

Nikolay Davydenko fell to eventual runner-up Robin Soderling, in straight sets.

Nikolay Davydenko then won two straight titles: the 2009 International German Open, defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu and the 2009 ATP Studena Croatia Open Umag, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero, dropping only one set in 10 matches.

Nikolay Davydenko then lost to Andy Murray in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, a loss which snapped a 12-match winning streak.

Nikolay Davydenko then lost in the third round of the 2009 Cincinnati Masters to Gilles Simon.

Nikolay Davydenko lost in the quarterfinals of the 2009 Pilot Pen Tennis to Sam Querrey.

Nikolay Davydenko won his third title of the year at the 2009 Malaysian Open by beating Gael Monfils in the quarterfinals, Robin Soderling in the semifinals, and Fernando Verdasco in the final.

At the ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nikolay Davydenko won four of his five matches.

Nikolay Davydenko lost his first round-robin match to Novak Djokovic, but he beat Nadal in his second match.

Nikolay Davydenko went on to beat the odds, defeating his group leader, Robin Soderling to reach the semifinals.

Nikolay Davydenko recorded his first win over Roger Federer in 13 tries in the semifinals with a win.

Nikolay Davydenko won by defeating Juan Martin del Potro in the final.

Nikolay Davydenko started the year at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, but was defeated in the first round by David Ferrer.

At the Australian Open, Nikolay Davydenko won his first three rounds without dropping a set, before beating Spain's Fernando Verdasco in five sets.

Nikolay Davydenko eventually lost to Federer in the quarterfinal in four sets.

Nikolay Davydenko then went to Rotterdam to play in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

Nikolay Davydenko was the second seed but, in the semifinal against Sweden's Robin Soderling Davydenko landed on his wrist, and injured it.

Nikolay Davydenko continued to play and lost to the eventual champion.

At the 2010 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Nikolay Davydenko defeated Latvia's Ernests Gulbis.

Nikolay Davydenko returned to the grass court in Halle, after missing the 2010 French Open.

Nikolay Davydenko played despite his doctor's advising him against playing the tournament.

Nikolay Davydenko then fell in the second round of 2010 Wimbledon to Daniel Brands in four sets.

Nikolay Davydenko reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 China Open, but failed to defend his title in the Shanghai Rolex Masters and fell out the top 10 for the first time in over a year.

Nikolay Davydenko then reached three consecutive quarterfinals in the 2010 Open Sud de France, 2010 Valencia Open 500, and 2010 BNP Paribas Masters.

Nikolay Davydenko did not qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Nikolay Davydenko dropped out of the top 20 for the first time in over.

Nikolay Davydenko then fell in the opening rounds of 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament and 2011 Open 13 to Frenchmen Michael Llodra and Gilles Simon, respectively.

Nikolay Davydenko then earned his first back-to-back wins since Doha in the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, but fell in the third round to Nicolas Almagro.

Nikolay Davydenko lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Flavio Cipolla in five sets and the first round of Roland Garros, to Andreas Seppi.

Nikolay Davydenko played World No 4, Andy Murray, in the first round of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, and was defeated easily.

Nikolay Davydenko did slightly better at the US Open, winning his first-round match against Argentinian Guido Pella but losing in the second round to local Mardy Fish in five sets.

In July 2012 Nikolay Davydenko represented the Russian Federation at the 2012 London Olympic Games, with the tennis tournament being played at Wimbledon.

Nikolay Davydenko paired with Mikhail Youzhny in the Olympics men's doubles; they won their first-round match over Germany but lost a tight match in the second round to eventual gold medallists Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA.

Nikolay Davydenko finished 2012 with an ATP singles ranking of 44, down from 41 at the start of 2012.

Nikolay Davydenko started his 2013 season by reaching the finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in January after defeating Spain's David Ferrer in the semifinals.

Nikolay Davydenko then took on Richard Gasquet, the world number 10, in the final, eventually losing in 3 sets.

Nikolay Davydenko lost to Daniel Brands in the first round of the Qatar Open.

Nikolay Davydenko was beaten by Richard Gasquet in the second round of the Australian Open.

Nikolay Davydenko began his clay court season with a first round loss to Albert Ramos Vinolas at the Barcelona Open.

Nikolay Davydenko won his first clay court match of the season at the Dusseldorf Open by defeating Dudi Sela before losing to Jiri Vesely second round.

Sources close to the Russian Davis Cup team and tennis federation said that Nikolay Davydenko had decided to retire and that he would be honoured with a farewell ceremony at that year's Kremlin Cup.

Nikolay Davydenko employed an offensive baseline game, using deep and penetrating groundstrokes on both wings.

Nikolay Davydenko's groundstrokes were technically efficient on both forehand and backhand.

Nikolay Davydenko's best shot was his backhand, which he could hit down the line, cross court, or with extreme angles.

Nikolay Davydenko was known for his running shots which he took early and often turned into winners.

Nikolay Davydenko's serve was technically correct and very consistent, even though it lacked the fire-power to become a serious weapon.

Nikolay Davydenko's style made him an effective player on any surface, however he was most successful on hard and clay courts, as he had not made any significant breakthroughs on grass.

Nikolay Davydenko's volleys were not as consistent as his groundstrokes, though he did have one of the best swinging volleys on tour.

Many tennis analysts criticized Nikolay Davydenko for lacking variation in his game due to the fact that he mainly played from the baseline with his consistent groundstrokes.

Nikolay Davydenko's difficulty closing matches lost him numerous important matches after holding the lead.

At the 2014 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells California, Nikolay Davydenko was playing with a Babolat AeroPro Drive GT.

Nikolay Davydenko wore Asics shoes and clothing towards the end of his career.

In January 2007, Nikolay Davydenko was fined AU$10,000 and apologised to Sydney International organisers after criticising the tournament for being "too small" and withdrawing from the tournament due to injury.

Nikolay Davydenko withdrew from the match during the third set with a foot injury.

Nikolay Davydenko was later fined $2000 by the ATP, but the fine was rescinded upon appeal.