Nikolai Davydenko, Russia's top men's tennis player, inched up to sixth place in the rankings on Monday after his victory in the yearend ATP World Tour Finals in London.
The unsung Russian, who has spent most of his 10-year career in the shadow of Marat Safin despite ending each of the past five years in the top 10, swept past U.S. Open winner Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4 in recording the biggest win of his career on Sunday.
He had beaten Roger Federer, the winner of this year's Wimbledon and Australian Open, and French Open champ Rafael Nadal, to return to the final, which he lost in Shanghai last year against Novak Djokovic.
After ousting world No. 1 Federer in the semifinal - his first victory over the Swiss on his 13th attempt - Davydenko's confidence shone through as the baseline specialist fired back everything the giant Argentine could throw at him in the final.
He said after the victory that he would spend some of the $1.5 million prize money on an apartment in Moscow, and joked that maybe now he would get recognized on the street.
"It was always disappointing when I played against Marat and it was 80 percent support for him," the Volgograd resident said. "I hope now Marat is finished everybody supports me."
The charismatic Safin retired this year but Davydenko, who is perhaps less well-known than his 19th-ranked compatriot Mikhail Youzhny, may have to win a Grand Slam tournament to reach a par with the now-retired former world No. 1, who won both the U.S. and Australian open titles.
Davydenko admitted it would be hard, noting that his style of play - chasing down every ball on the baseline - made it hard to win five-set matches at the Grand Slam tournaments.
MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti)
