Highly-fancied Russian Nikolay Davydenko’s Australian Open campaign marched on with a comprehensive 6-3 6-3 6-0 victory over Ukrainian qualifier Illya Marchenko on Thursday.
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Davydenko, the world No.6 took only one hour and 49 minutes to dispose of 22-year-old Marchenko, who was making his Grand Slam debut in Melbourne. The win edges Davydenko one step closer to a potential fourth-round clash with 2009 semi-finalist and this year’s ninth seed, Fernando Verdasco.
Davydenko’s precise and smart tennis saw him consistently out-wit his 119th-ranked opponent,. While Marchenko started well, taking an early 2-0 lead with a break of Davydenko’s serve, the Russian immediately broke back before holding serve defiantly with two big aces.
Marchenko rose to the occasion of his first match against a top 35 player and pulled out some winners of his own, including a cross-court backhand on the stretch from a deep Davydenko forehand.
The Ukrainian, who overcame 1998 Roland Garros champion Carlos Moya in the opening round, managed to earn four break point opportunities in the opening set, but Davydenko was too strong and took it 6-3.
It didn’t take long for Davydenko to grab the advantage in the second set, breaking the Ukrainian in his second service game.
Again Marchenko tried desperately to stay in the set, and went shot-for-shot with the world No. 6 in Davydenko’s next service game. The Ukrainian made a brilliant return from a powerful Davydenko backhand and fended off a body shot from the Russian at the net to set up another break point.
Davydenko fired an ace to get out of trouble and held his serve 4-2 before wrapping up the set in his following service game.
It was all one-way traffic in the final set as Davydenko put in a clinical display, quickly breaking Marchenko to love and finishing off the Ukrainian in just 30 minutes to cruise into the third round.
Davydenko is currently riding an 11-match winning streak. He won the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals last November, where he defeated Roger Federer for the first time, and he also beat Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro en route to the title.
His next opponent will be 30th seed Juan Monaco from Argentina, who came from two sets down to oust Frenchman Michael Llodra on Thursday.
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