Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( ; born 2 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 in November 2006. Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the semi-finals, which he accomplished on four occasions: twice each at the French Open and the U.S. Open, losing to Roger Federer in all but one of them. He is regarded as the greatest player in men's tennis history not to have contested a Grand Slam final. His biggest achievement was winning the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, and he also won three ATP Masters Series. In mid-October 2014 Davydenko retired from playing professionally.Российский теннисист Николай Давыденко официально завершил спортивную карьеру. itar-tass.com. 15 October 2014
Personal life Nikolay was born on June 2, 1981, in Sievierodonetsk, at that time Severodonetsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, in the family of Vladimir and Tatiana Davydenko. He started playing tennis at the age of 7 with his brother Eduard, nine years his senior. At the age of 11, he left his hometown for the Russian city of Volgograd. The initiator of the departure was his brother Eduard who worked as a children's tennis coach in Volgograd at that time. He motivated his brother's move by the fact Nikolay's professional growth at home was impossible. Four years later, in 1996, the brothers decided to move to Salmtal, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany for the same reasons.
The brothers had lived in Germany for three years and then applied for German citizenship but the German Tennis Federation did not support the application, and as a result, they returned to Russia. In 1999, at the age of 18, Nikolay changed his Ukrainian citizenship (granted at 14 by default) to the Russian one. In 2007, he applied for Austrian citizenship (so as to obtain dual citizenship), unsuccessfully. He was motivated by the difficulties obtaining travel visa with the Russian passport. And he wasn't given one because a sports minister in Austria was against while the other local authorities seemed to approve it. According to Davydenko, the Austrian minister said: "It's too soon".
He and his wife Irina, a former model (m. 2006), have three children, an older daughter named Ekaterina (born 2012) and two sons — Konstantin (b. 2015) and Dmitry (b. 2017). His nephew Philipp is a former professional tennis player and ATP/WTA coach. Davydenko speaks Russian as a native language, German as his second one, and English.
In 2024, Davydenko – having lost to doping cheat Mariano Puerta in the 2005 French Open semifinals – commented that he was 'physically dead' during the match, whilst Puerta was fresh; but that he did not know whether doping was the source of Puerta's elevated stamina.
Tennis career Early career Davydenko started playing at the age of seven with his brother, Eduard. During his junior tennis years, he moved to Salmtal, Germany with Eduard to further improve and participate in more tournaments.
Davydenko turned professional in 1999. In 2000, he played mainly on the Futures Tour, where he captured one title and reached three finals. He made his ATP debut at Amsterdam, reaching the semifinal. Later in August, he won his first Challenger title in Mönchengladbach.
2001–2003 Davydenko made his Grand Slam debut in 2001 at the Australian Open, where he made it to the second round, before losing to former world no. 1, Patrick Rafter in four sets. This performance captured the public eye for his talent and ability. Later in February, he injured his lower back in Dallas and was out for six weeks. After the injury, he came back to win two Challenger titles in Ulm and Istanbul. He finished the season with a quarterfinal showing in Basel.
In 2002, Davydenko continued to play on both the ATP Tour and in Challenger events. It was a steady year with quarterfinal appearances in Båstad and Vienna. During the year, he captured his fourth Challenger title in Szczecin.
Davydenko made huge strides on the ATP Tour in 2003. He opened the season with his first ATP title in Adelaide, defeating Kristof Vliegen in the final. A few months later, he captured his second tour title in Estoril on clay, beating Agustín Calleri. His season was backed up with solid performances on clay in Barcelona and St. Pölten, reaching the quarterfinal and final, respectively. After a solid year, Davydenko finished in the top 50 for the first time in his career.
2004: Breakthrough
His progress continued in 2004, capturing two more titles for the second consecutive year. After a slow start to season, a quarterfinal in the Monte Carlo Masters kicked off a 10–2 matches run. A week later, he won his third title in Munich. He backed up his win by reaching the semifinal in Stuttgart, losing to Guillermo Cañas. In October, he captured his first home-soil victory in Moscow by winning both the singles and doubles (partnering Igor Andreev). He finished the season in the top 30 for the first time.
2005–2009: Peak years
2005 In 2005, he began the season by reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in a Grand Slam at the Australian Open. During the clay season, he captured his fifth career title in St. Pölten, beating home favourite, Jürgen Melzer. He continued his solid form by reaching the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters and his first semifinal of a Grand Slam at the French Open. In the fourth round of the French Open, he upset one of the tournament favourites and the previous year's runner-up, Guillermo Coria in four sets. This win showed just how far Davydenko had come in the last year, as Coria had beaten Davydenko with the loss of just six games in the 2004 French Open first round.
Davydenko lost in the semifinals of the 2005 French Open to Mariano Puerta in five close sets. Davydenko reached the top 10 for the first time after the 2005 French Open. He closed out the year by reaching the quarterfinals at the Cincinnati Masters and the Paris Masters. After a great season, he qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai for the first time and reached the semifinals, losing to David Nalbandian. He finished the year as the no. 1 Russian and world no. 5.
2006
After his rapid rise into the top 5 in 2005, Davydenko continued to stay in the top 5 for 2006. He repeated his quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, losing to Roger Federer in four tight sets. He had another solid clay-court season, reaching the final in Estoril and the quarterfinal, at the Hamburg Masters. He defended his title in Pöertschach and reached the quarterfinal at the French Open for the second year. His form continued after an early loss at Wimbledon with wins in Sopot and his first American win in New Haven. He reached his second Grand Slam semifinal at the U.S. Open, losing to Roger Federer. He finished the season with a win in Moscow and his first career TMS title in Paris. After getting married, Davydenko helped Russia win the Davis Cup against Argentina. He reached a career-high ranking of no. 3, with which he finished the year.
2007
2007 started with another quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open for the third consecutive year. He was slow to find his form in the clay court season, but finally did at the Rome Masters, losing in the semifinal to Rafael Nadal in an enthralling match. His good form continued, and he reached the semifinals for the second time at the French Open, losing to Roger Federer again, in straight sets. At Wimbledon, he surprised the tennis world by reaching the fourth round on his least preferred surface. Moving to the hard-court season in the US, Davydenko had strong showings in the Canada Masters and the Cincinnati Masters, reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. Davydenko then reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the second consecutive year, before losing to Roger Federer in straight sets. He won his eleventh career title in Moscow, defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu. In November, he took part in the Masters Cup, which took place in Shanghai, China. He played in the Red group round robin, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer 2:0 sets, losing to Andy Roddick 2:1 sets, and beating Fernando Gonzales 2:0 sets, thus finishing 3rd in the group, meaning he did not reach the knockout stage. Davydenko ended the year ranked no. 4 and in the top 5 for the third straight year.
2008 Davydenko started 2008 at the Australian Open, where he was seeded fourth. He won his first three matches in straight sets, but in the fourth round he lost to countryman Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets. In Dubai, he reached the semifinals, losing to Feliciano López in three sets. He then went on to win his biggest career title to date at the Miami Masters. En route to the win, he defeated Andy Roddick in the semifinals and Rafael Nadal in the final to win his second ATP Masters Series title. His win over Roddick in the semifinals was his first victory in six matches, while his win over Nadal was his first in three matches.
Davydenko began the European clay-court season with a final appearance in his next tournament, the Estoril Open in Portugal, where he met world no. 1, Roger Federer in the final. In the second set of the final, while trailing Federer, 6–7, 2–1, Davydenko retired with a left leg injury. He then reached the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters. He won his thirteenth career title in Pöertschach, defeating Juan Mónaco. After a disappointing French Open, Davydenko went on to win another title, this time in Warsaw, defeating Tommy Robredo in the final. Appearing at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Davydenko's stay in Beijing was brief; despite being seeded fourth at the Games, he would be upset by Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round. He did not win back-to-back matches until the US Open. At the Open, he lost in the fourth round to qualifier Gilles Müller in four sets, breaking his streak of two straight semifinals.
Davydenko reached the semifinals at the Paris Masters, losing to David Nalbandian. Davydenko qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup for the fourth consecutive year. He beat Juan Martín del Potro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the round-robin matches to progress to the semifinals, where he defeated Andy Murray to reach the final. There he met Novak Djokovic, losing. Davydenko finished the year ranked no. 5 in the world and in the top 5 for the fourth consecutive year.
2009 Davydenko started the year at an exhibition in Abu Dhabi, which featured six of the world's best players. Davydenko defeated Andy Roddick, before being defeated by top seed Rafael Nadal.
His first tour tournament was in Chennai, India, where he was the top seed. He defeated Daniel Köllerer in straight sets, but was forced to withdraw before his second-round match against Lukáš Dlouhý because of a left heel injury. This injury subsequently forced Davydenko to withdraw from the Australian Open. In Rotterdam, he was defeated in the second round by Julien Benneteau. The injury he sustained in Chennai earlier in the year returned, forcing Davydenko to withdraw from the 1000 Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami. This caused his ranking to fall from no. 5 to no. 9 by April 6.
Davydenko returned to the tour after a two-month absence. In Monte Carlo, he defeated Ivo Karlović and David Nalbandian, before being eliminated by Andy Murray in the quarterfinals. In Barcelona, he posted back-to-back three-set wins over Feliciano López and Radek Štěpánek. He was ousted by world no. 1 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Despite his run in Barcelona, his ranking slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since May 23, 2005.