People forget that Nikolay Davydenko used to be number 4 in the world.  That means the guy can play tennis.  The viewing public only cares about finalists.  How important was it for Andy Roddick’s reputation to make it to the finals of Wimbledon?

Very important.  Most players are remembered for winning multiple Slams.  If not that, then perhaps one or two Slams will at least tickle a few neurons.  But if you’ve never made a final (and Cedric Pioline made two), few are going to think of you as a particularly great player.

Nikolay Davydenko has made the semifinals four times, but players like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and so on, make his life tough.  He’s often struggled to get to the quarterfinals.  He plays poorly at Wimbledon, for example, presumably because the ball bounces too low for his liking.  Even the French Open hasn’t been that kind to Davydenko.

But Davydenko has speed, he has consistency, he can produce angles.  And those angles can create headaches for his opponents.  Remember when folks that Fernando Verdasco would knock him out of the French Open, but Davydenko rolled over him easily.  Davydenko struggles with the big servers and big hitters, so he can lose to a player like Robin Soderling.

Davydenko played the roll of spoiler.  With Federer and Murray taking time off nursing injuries, we have a repeat of the clay court season that pitted Nadal vs. Djokovic.  There’s only one problem.  Neither seem to make the final.  Last week, it was Marin Cilic who overpowered Nadal in Beijing.  This week, Djokovic played a guy that plays a similar game to his, one that involves a lot of running and a lot of angles.  Both know how to keep a rally going, navigating sharp angled exchanges like few others in the world.  Djokovic lacks a huge booming serve that allows him to win cheap points.

The match between the two was very close.  Djokovic took the first set, 6-4.  Davydenko took the second by the same score.  Davydenko had chances to break Djokovic in the third set with Djokovic having to dig deep to get out of the mess.  The third set went to a tiebreak.  When Davydenko took the first point from Djokovic, then held his own two points, then took two more from Djokovic, to take a 5-0 lead, it was too much to overcome.  Davydenko would win 7-1 in the tiebreak

Nadal got a second “break” in a row.  Yesterday, he played Ljubicic who retired before the start of the third set.  Today, he played countryman, Feliciano Lopez.  Lopez was struggling a bit with ankle injuries, and so after losing the first set, 6-1, and going down 3-0 in the second, Lopez retired, making him the sixth player to retire in the tournament (Roddick, del Potro, Haas, Wawrinka, and Monfils being the other five).

Thus, Nadal faces Davydenko in the finals.  Early in their career, they would play close matches. Nadal leads the series 4-2, but one of Davydenko’s wins came when Nadal retired.  Davydenko’s other win came on hard courts.  This could be a pretty evenly fought match, provided both can stay healthy.  Davydenko isn’t the kind of guy that’s going to blow Nadal off the court like del Potro.  He’ll play him a bit more like Djokovic.  However, I don’t believe Nadal is 100%, so I think Davydenko can take him.

Slight edge to Davydenko, but only because Nadal isn’t quite playing his best.