Sport

Winning matters for Davydenko

PHOTO: AFP

FLYING OBJECT: Marat Safin, who lost to Marcos Baghdatis, watches his racquet fly through the air in the Australian Open tennis. —

MELBOURNE: Nikolay Davydenko is discovering it can be hard to keep a low profile in the first week of a major.

No. 4-ranked Davydenko, still subject of an ATP investigation into betting irregularities surrounding a match he played at Sopot, Poland in August, has remained surprisingly focussed in not dropping a set so far at the Australian Open.

He beat Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 on Friday to advance to the fourth round.

Davydenko’s preparations were overshadowed by the inquiry, which has already lasted several months. He denies any wrongdoing and says the investigation is dragging on too long.

Davydenko is the epitome of calm. “At the beginning of a tournament you always feel nervous, but three matches have already been good,” he said. “Now, it’s about concentration for me.”

After reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals the past three years, Davydenko knows he’s only one win — at most — from a match on centre court.

“I don’t think about centre court for me now,” he said. “I know I need to win four matches to be in the quarterfinals, and I’ll be on the centre court.”

Jelena Jankovic got a warning from the umpire, then delivered one of her own to the rest of the field at the Australian Open when she rallied to down Virginie Razzano with an emphatic third-round win.

“It got me pumped. If the umpires keep doing that it’s going to be dangerous,” she said. “Some people, it can put them down, but me it helped.”

Jankovic got a code violation at deuce in the first game of the third set after the umpire interpreted encouragement — spoken in Serbian from her mother Snezana — as coaching.

The third-seeded Jankovic remonstrated with the chair umpire before resuming the match with renewed aggression and advanced to the fourth round with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win.

Marat Safin leaves the Australian Open with a US$500 dent in his US$30,250 prize money after damaging his racket in a fit of temper during a five-set loss to Marco Baghdatis. After two rounds, 18 players in the men’s draw had been cited for code infractions, including nine for racket abuse, seven for audible obscenities and two for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Safin threw his racket in disgust in the fifth set after Baghdatis won an easy point, and looked to restrain himself from repeating the move a couple more times. — AP

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