Federer back in business
14th November, 2007
Tennis world number one Roger Federer avoided a third consecutive defeat in a straight sets 6-4, 6-3 victory over Nikolay Davydenko. Federer lost his opening Shanghai Masters Cup Red Group game against Fernando Gonzalez, which followed on from the shock defeat against David Nalbandian in the Paris Masters last month.
With his 10-0 record over Davydenko, Federer was expected to dominate the game against the Russian. It took until the eighth game to record the first break of serve, which Davydenko immediately responded to with a break of his own. A third consecutive broken serve game gave Federer the first set.
Davydenko put up far less of a fight in the second set, with Federer easily breaking twice for a 5-1 lead, and despite not serving out the set on the first opportunity, he easily finished the game off to take a straight-sets victory.
The world number one will now face Andy Roddick on Friday, where a win will be important to progress to the semi-finals. The bookies do not hold out much hope for him, the American having lost 14 of their 15 previous meetings. Davydenko has now dropped out of contention after losing his opening game. Federer remains favourite to win the tournament at about 1-2, whilst Roddick is closer to 10-1. Odds are taken from our free live odds comparison service.
