By Parsa Samii (GEM Tennis)

In the first semifinal match at the ATP World Tour finals in London, Russian Nikolay Davydenko defeated 2009 world #1 Roger Federer 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 55 minutes. Davydenko continued his impressive form since the US Open. He challenged Federer with deep, penetrating ground strokes, quick movement around the court, and impressive mental toughness.

In the first set, Federer produced error after error and Davydenko took full advantage of the slow start of his opponent, winning the set 6-2. Early in the second set, the Swiss maestro showed signs of raising his level of play and Davydenko started to really feel the pressure each and every service game. Eventually Davydenko succumbed to the pressure from Federer while serving at 4-5 in the second. The Swiss took the set 6-4.

The third set is where the true test for the Russian appeared. Federer continued his aggressive play and Davydenko continuously had to defend while fighting for his place in the tour final tomorrow. Also, Davydenko was facing a 0-12 lifetime record against Federer. All of the odds were stacked against the Russian, he was serving at 4-5 in the third set where the pressure seemed at its highest point. This also was the same point at which Federer broke Davydenko to win the second set earlier in the match. On the other side of the net, Federer was bouncing around like he was hunting for the kill. The first point of the game featured a long rally that ended with a lucky net cord winner by Federer. The second point was another long gruesome rally that ended with Davydenko hitting an overhead that in most circumstances would be a winning shot, but in miraculous fashion Federer hit an overhead off of the Davydenko shot that the Russian was not expecting. The crowd in London roared its approval and the momentum had seemingly turned completely into the #1′s corner. At love-30 and a look at a second serve, Federer missed a routine forehand that very well could have been the single shot that turned around the Davydenko mindset. From that point on, the Russian played extremely strong as he seized his opportunity and held to tie the score at 5. In tennis, when momentum shifts it has a tendency to continue to be volatile, continually shifting between opponents in a match. As quickly as it looked that Davydenko was going to lose, it was Federer who was back on his heels fighting to keep up with the confident Russian. On Davydenko’s first break point since the first set, he hit a backhand return winner off of a Federer second serve to consolidate the break of serve. At 6-5 Davydenko, he was seemingly unbreakable as the Russian produced the hardest serves of the match at the most critical points of the match. He was grunting with a fury and closed Federer out in decisive form winning the final set 7-5. Good luck to Nikolay tomorrow!