The big winners on the men's tour this weekend were Nikolay Davydenko and Robby Ginepri, two hard-luck cases who couldn't have made their re-breakthroughs at a better time.
Davydenko, who defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2 in the German Open final on Sunday, hadn't won a title in 13 months. Who would have thought that his fortunes would nosedive so soon after he bagged the biggest title of his career to date (Miami, in April 2008)? Davydenko missed a whopping four months of this season and watched in dismay as his ranking headed south (down to No. 12), just when it appeared he might be prepared to take his status as an also-in-contention player to the next level in 2009.
Ginepri's last tournament win before the Indianapolis Tennis Championships had been almost exactly 28 years ago -- if you go by Boris Becker's famous advice to measure a tennis player's age in dog years. But even in human years, 2005 was mighty long ago, and for Ginepri those four years were eventful -- and not always in a good way. Back in May, he spent nine days in the hospital after his appendix burst, and he emerged 30 pounds lighter.
The weight loss didn't make Ginepri faster; it made him weaker, and strength and stamina (along with that aggressive service return) traditionally have been two of his best qualities. Ginepri hadn't won back-to-back matches this year, so this development couldn't have come at a better time: He's an American, he prefers hard courts and the U.S. Open is looming on the horizon. Don't underestimate the shot of confidence this Indy win will give him as the road to the U.S. Open opens before him.
That asphalt runway ought to look mighty inviting to Davydenko, too, even though he chose to labor on the red clay during the post-Wimbledon European swing. Davydenko may prefer clay, but he is one of those guys who, if he gets a hot hand on hard courts, can be very tough to beat.
Like Ginepri, Davydenko is mostly a counterpuncher, but Davydenko hits flatter, more penetrating shots and is quicker. He is a ball smacker in the same mold as James Blake, but he's more consistent (as his rankings history demonstrates). For most of the past five years, he has pretty much flatlined at around No. 5, a model of consistency. He has been to the quarterfinals or deeper in five majors, with two U.S. Open semifinals in that stretch.
Although they've been comrades in distress for large portions of this year, Ginepri has never approached Davydenko's level of success. Both of the times Ginepri has won in Indy, he was hovering around that dangerous No. 100 mark in the rankings. But while Davydenko has to see his win in Hamburg as a medium-sized step on his road back to the top 5, Ginepri can look at his own triumph as a springboard to reinventing himself as a top 20-grade player. The U.S. Open Series, which will be heating up starting in Montreal in a week's time, will be the ideal setting for the effort.
Ginepri said he felt as though he got a monkey off his back when he finally won back-to-back matches in Indy. The U.S. Open, as we all know, is the 2,000-pound gorilla in the room at this time of year, but it would be foolish for Ginepri to look too far ahead. Take it one monkey at a time, Robby.
Peter Bodo
