Nikolay Davydenko became the fifth member of a select group of players to bag at least three titles on the ATP World Tour this year after winning the inaugural Proton Malaysian Open tennis championships at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The top seeded Russian triumphed 6-4, 7-5 over second seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain after battling for 95 minutes.
It was the third title for the 28-year-old Davydenko after wins in Hamburg, Germany and Umag, Croatia.
In only the sixth final on the Tour featuring the top two seeds, Davydenko broke serve once from five opportunities to seal the first set after 43 minutes.
Davydenko and Verdasco exchanged service breaks early in the second set before the Russian gained a crucial break in the 11th game to lead 6-5 and eventually served out to take victory over the world No. 9 in front of the packed stands.
Davydenko said that the long rallies in the early moments had an effect on him.
“I felt very tired. In the first set, we played difficult points. Just the first game of the match took 10 minutes. It was hard to recover in between points.
“In the second set the points were getting shorter,” said the Russian, who improved his record against the Spaniard to 6-1.
However, Davydenko, who also defeated Verdasco in the fourth round of the French Open this year, felt he produced his best match of the tournament yesterday.
For his Kuala Lumpur triumph, Davydenko pocketed US$154,000 and 250 ranking points while Verdasco picked up US$81,000 and 150 ranking points.- thestar
