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Sunday October 4, 2009

Davydenko downs Soderling to set up showdown with Verdasco

By LIM TEIK HUAT

KUALA LUMPUR: Top seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia snapped a four-match losing streak against third seed Robin Soderling of Sweden to reach the final of the Proton Malaysian Open tennis championships at the Putra Stadium yesterday.

World No. 8 Davydenko recovered from a slow start to beat the French Open runner-up 1-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 in slightly over two hours.

Davydenko’s final opponent will be second seed and world No. 9. Fernando Verdasco, who overcame fourth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 31 minutes in the other semi-final.

Yesterday’s win was Davydenko’s first over Soderling in three years. The pair also clashed at the French Open and the US Open this year.

Things were looking good for the Swede as he was on fire in the first set, winning in just 35 minutes as the 28-year-old Russian had problems with his service game.

However, Soderling’s game fell apart after that, allowing Davydenko to hit right back.

The Russian grew in confidence after winning the tie-break in the second set and wrapped up victory in the third set when Soderling netted a volley on match point.

“It was surprising because Robin played really well at the start of the match and I really had no chances,” said Davydenko, who is chasing a third win on the ATP World Tour this year after triumphing at the German and Croatia Opens.

“I was thinking that if he kept playing that way, I wouldn’t stand a chance. He was serving and returning so well. I kept on fighting hard in the second set and I was able to win the tiebreak.”

Asked on his thoughts for the final, Davydenko said he would need to take a different approach against a different opponent.

“I’m not going to think I have things in the bag because Verdasco has had a great season. You never know how this guy will play in the final. I beat him the last time we met at Roland Garros (French Open) this year but the conditions are very different here,” said Davydenko.

Verdasco, who has brought his family here for his first visit to Asia, said the victory over Gonzalez meant everything to him.

“I served well today (yesterday). It is always difficult to play Gonzalez but I am improving every day and I hope to play well tomorrow (today),” said the Spaniard.

Earlier, the unseeded Russian-Czech Republic pairing of Igor Kunitsyn-Jaroslav Levinsky advanced to the men’s doubles final after beating Stephen Huss-Scott Lipsky 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 10-3 in 83 minutes.

They will meet Polish pair Mariusz Fyrstenberg-Marcin Matkowski in the final.

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