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Davydenko ends Mathieu fairytale
Paul-Henri Mathieu has been one of the very positive surprises of the 39th ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. The Frenchman received a late wildcard to the qualification and passed both Michael Berrer and Thomas Schoorel to enter the maindraw. He followed up with a great win against 4th seed Feliciano Lopez toset up a meeting with former World Tour Finals champion, Nikolay Davydenko.
The Russian played a solid match against Robin Haase in the 1st round, and with a single break he got off to a great start against Mathieu.
But Mathieu showed amazing spirit, just as he did against Lopez, and put up a good fight. The second set went to a tiebreak, and even though he missed 3 setpoints at 6-3 in the breaker, he recovered and grabbed the set.
But the Russian showed why he has been among the absolute top players of the world for such a long time. He simply outplayed Mathieu in the third set, winning it 6-1. Davydenko is hoping for a good run in Rotterdam that can end his poor start to the 2012 season. A good display in Ahoy can give the Russian confidence, and he certainly has great opportunities as he faces the winner of Richard Gasquet and Alex Bogomolov, who plays on Thursday.
