Davydenko completes famous win in London

Eleanor Crooks,Pa
Sunday 29 November 2009 14:00 EST
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Nikolay Davydenko celebrated joining the sport's most illustrious names following his 6-3 6-4 victory over Juan Martin del Potro in the final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena.

The Russian, who also collected a cheque for more then US dollars 1.5million, had already beaten Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and made it a clean sweep of this year's grand slam winners with a dominant victory over the US Open champion.

Davydenko, who lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the prestigious end-of-season tournament last year, said: "Until 2008, so many names there, like Djokovic, Federer, everyone, (Pete) Sampras.

"In 2009 the name Davydenko stays forever for this trophy. I think it's amazing. I know the history of the Masters Cup. For my name be there is something amazing for me."

Having battled to three-set wins over Robin Soderling to reach the semi-finals and then Federer - for the first time in 13 matches - in the last four, the final proved remarkably straightforward for the 28-year-old, who admitted he surprised himself with how well he played.

He continued: "Before the match, I was warming up, I was so tired. I was already starting to be scared about how I start to play the match, how I can play against Del Potro.

"And really in the beginning, (from the) first game, I won my first serve. I started to get really good concentration, to be positive, everything was a good feeling."

Davydenko, who has climbed up to number six in the world with his run this week, picked up where he left off against Federer and in truth a Del Potro revival never really looked on the cards.

The Russian broke through in the fourth game after his opponent - not for the first time in the tournament - was pulled up for a foot fault.

Del Potro had one chance to break back but Davydenko is not easily rattled and he recovered to hold and then confidently served out the set.

The Argentinian needed something special in the second set but two break points went begging in game six and three games later he came unstuck, Davydenko putting together a series of superb points to break to love.

He clinched the title in confident style, too, to become the first Russian champion at the event and Del Potro admitted he had been outplayed.

"This tournament has a great champion," he said. "He worked hard to beat every player here this week. He played much better than me, and that's it. He played unbelievable tennis.

"He's very fast. He played like PlayStation - he ran everywhere. It's very difficult to make winners. Nobody knows how we can beat him."

Del Potro felt his foot fault in the first set was a key moment in the match.

"It was very important," he added. "After that foot fault, then he broke me, he took away the match. But last night against Soderling or against Federer, it happened the same. I don't know, maybe it was my fault."

Meanwhile, in the doubles final Bob and Mike Bryan beat Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to claim their third end-of-season crown and ensure they return to the top of the world rankings.

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