MOSCOW, January 2 (R-Sport) - Nikolay Davydenko surprised national No. 1 Mikhail Youzhny in an all-Russian match at the Qatar Open in Doha on Wednesday.
Davydenko, Doha champion in 2010 and finalist in 2011, continued his strong record in the hard-court event by making up 19 ranking places to beat 25th-ranked Youzhny 7-5, 6-3 in their second-round clash.
Davydenko was erratic early on, but Youzhny failed to take advantage, missing what turned out to be his only break point of the match at 2-2 in the first set before Davydenko began to stamp his authority on the match.
Davydenko stretched his head-to-head record against Youzhny to 4-2. He now faces either Italy’s Simone Bolelli or Poland’s Lukasz Kobot in the quarterfinals.
Earlier Wednesday, Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi beat Slovakia’s Lukas Rosol 6-0, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal with either Spanish top seed David Ferrer or Germany’s Tobias Kamke.
German qualifier Daniel Brands also reached the quarterfinals after eliminating 456th-ranked Egyptian Mohamed Safwat 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Brands next plays either German third seed Philipp Kohlschreiber or Frenchman Gael Monfils, who play later Wednesday.
The $1 million Doha tournament is a warm-up event for the Australian Open later this month.
