Davydenko Reprimanded over Serve
2nd November, 2007
Nikolay Davydenko, already in the centre of a tennis corruption probe, has been reprimanded over his serve, for the second consecutive tournament. The chair umpire Cedric Mourier spoke to Davydenko at a changeover during his match against Baghdatis, asking him what was wrong with his serve. Davydenko replied by asking what else he could do, to which he got the reply "Serve like me, if you serve like me, you put it in the box. That's it." Just a week before, Davydenko was fined $2,000 by the ATP for "lack of best effort" during a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to then-No. 102 Marin Cilic at the St. Petersburg Open. The chair umpire similarly gave Davydenko a hard time during that match.
Davydenko served 10 double-faults and had a huge 36 unforced errors in the two sets, which finished 6-2, 6-2. The Russian was booed on a few occasions during the game, in which he lost his serve five times.
A spokesman for the ATP said on Thursday that they didn't think anything was wrong with what Davydenko did in Paris, meaning no action will be taken against him. Davydenko had said Wednesday he was hampered by a sore elbow, but he didn't give a direct answer when Baghdatis asked him what was wrong as they shook hands at the end of the match. The Russian said later: "I cannot serve. That was happening in St. Petersburg. I don't have pain really. I have no pain in my elbow. I need to find what's the reason I cannot really serve."
The ATP is still looking into a match in August, when online gambling exchange Betfair voided all bets on a match after Davydenko withdrew against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello in the third set because of a “foot injury”.
Baghdatis remains an outsider to take the Paris Masters at 6/1, whilst Nalbandian has moved up to second favourite after his second victory in 11 days over world number one Federrer. Nadal is now favourite for the title at around 15/7. All the odds are taken from our odds comparison service.
