Skip to content

Davydenko does for Simon

Image: Nikolay Davydenko: Knocked fifth seed Gilles Simon out of Valencia Open.

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko dumped fifth seed Gilles Simon out of the Valencia Open in three sets.

Latest Tennis Stories

Russian dents Frenchman's London hopes with hard-fought win

Nikolay Davydenko produced the kind of form that saw him into the world's top ten as he dumped fifth seed Gilles Simon out of the Valencia Open in three sets. The Russian brought an end to a sequence of five straight defeats against Simon as he emerged a 6-4 4-6 6-3 winner on Monday. The defeat puts a dent in Simon's hopes of reaching the ATP World Tour finals with the Frenchman 12th in the points race with only the top eight players securing a place in London next month. But it was an encouraging success for Davydenko - currently down at number 36 in the world having been as high as three - who broke a total of four times and served well throughout, his first-serve percentage finishing at 76 percent.

Another Frenchman next up

The Russian will now meet Simon's compatriot Nicolas Mahut who beat Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 to secure his passage. There was another sizeable shock as Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil overcame America's John Isner after a tense three-set affair. Pospisil, 21, took the first set only to be pegged back by Isner, but the Canadian youngster held his nerve in an epic third set tie-breaker to record a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (11-9) triumph. A showdown against the winner of the all-Spanish affair between Spaniards David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco now awaits Pospisil. Elsewhere, Italy's Fabio Fognini overcame a slow start to comfortably beat Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-4 6-3.

Around Sky