Two years after being embroiled in a tennis betting scandal, the Russian reached the final of the ATP World Tour Finals by defeating top-ranked Roger Federer 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 Saturday at the O2 Arena.
Although he reached the same stage of the season-ending tournament last year, losing to Novak Djokovic in the final when it was in Shanghai, Davydenko has not had an easy road to finishing in the top 10 for the fifth straight year.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here"I'm really surprised how with this difficult time I made good result, because I really know it's staying always in your mind, and you stay under pressure from the press, from the fans, from the people everywhere in the world," Davydenko said. "And everywhere, if I coming for tournament, press start to asking me about betting."
Davydenko was linked to the betting scandal in August 2007 after withdrawing injured from a tournament in Poland against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello in the third set. An online betting company voided all bets on the match because of suspicious betting patterns.
Although Davydenko has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the ATP, he spent years answering questions about his integrity.
"Every tournament I played, it was very tough to play," Davydenko said. "I would like (to) stop tennis for couple months, don't want to play. But really, I don't know, maybe I have good coach, my family really support me, give me chance."
It seemed to work at the U.S. Open that year, because Davydenko reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Federer.
"Maybe my Russian mentality is very tough," he said.
This year, he dropped out of the top five and is currently ranked No. 7. But he entered the ATP World Tour Finals as one of the ATP's hottest players, winning the Shanghai Masters in October.
In London, Davydenko lost to Djokovic in his opening Group B match, but then beat Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling to reach the semifinals and set up a match against the top-ranked Federer.
Federer, who had beaten Davydenko in each of his previous 12 meetings with the Russian heading into Saturday's semifinal match, said he has always respected his rival even though others didn't.
"I don't know if you guys have. I have," Federer said. "I think it's most important that he has respect from his fellow players. I think he didn't have the easiest of last few years, where people suspected him of doing bad things in the sport. He had a cloud over his name for quite some time, which was not very fair at the end now.
"I think he handled it very well towards the end."
Federer also said he was impressed that Davydenko was able to play through all the rumors and still stay at the top of his game.
"To be able to continue playing this well by being asked always the same stupid questions must not have been very easy for him," Federer said. "So I respect him not only for that, but obviously for the player he is.
"He finally beat me today. I wish him all the best for the final."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Milito makes returnFederer drawn into same group as Del Potro
