Nikolay Davydenko

Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko (Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player.

Nikolay was born on June 2, 1981, in Sievierodonetsk, at that time Severodonetsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, in the family of Vladimir and Tatiana Davydenko.

He started playing tennis at the age of 7 with his brother Eduard, nine years his senior.

At the age of 11, he left his hometown for the Russian city of Volgograd.

The initiator of the departure was his brother Eduard who worked as a children's tennis coach in Volgograd at that time.

He motivated his brother's move by the fact Nikolay's professional growth at home was impossible.

Four years later, in 1996, the brothers decided to move to Salmtal, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany for the same reasons.

The brothers had lived in Germany for three years and then applied for German citizenship but the German Tennis Federation did not support the application, and as a result, they returned to Russia.

In 1999, at the age of 18, Nikolay changed his Ukrainian citizenship (granted at 14 by default) to the Russian one.

Davydenko turned professional in 1999.

In 2000, he played mainly on the Futures Tour, where he captured one title and reached three finals.

He made his ATP debut at Amsterdam, reaching the semifinal.

Later in August, he won his first Challenger title in Mönchengladbach.

Davydenko made his Grand Slam debut in 2001 at the Australian Open, where he made it to the second round, before losing to former world no. 1, Patrick Rafter in four sets.

This performance captured the public eye for his talent and ability.

Later in February, he injured his lower back in Dallas and was out for six weeks.

After the injury, he came back to win two Challenger titles in Ulm and Istanbul.

He finished the season with a quarterfinal showing in Basel.

In 2002, Davydenko continued to play on both the ATP Tour and in Challenger events.

It was a steady year with quarterfinal appearances in Båstad and Vienna.

During the year, he captured his fourth Challenger title in Szczecin.

Davydenko made huge strides on the ATP Tour in 2003.

He opened the season with his first ATP title in Adelaide, defeating Kristof Vliegen in the final.

A few months later, he captured his second tour title in Estoril on clay, beating Agustín Calleri.

His season was backed up with solid performances on clay in Barcelona and St. Pölten, reaching the quarterfinal and final, respectively.

After a solid year, Davydenko finished in the top 50 for the first time in his career.

His progress continued in 2004, capturing two more titles for the second consecutive year.

He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 in November 2006.

Davydenko's best result in a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the semi-finals, which he accomplished on four occasions: twice each at the French Open and the U.S. Open, losing to Roger Federer in all but one of them.

He and his wife Irina, a former model (m. 2006), have three children, an older daughter named Ekaterina (born 2012) and two sons — Konstantin (b. 2015) and Dmitry (b. 2017).

His nephew Philipp is a former professional tennis player and ATP/WTA coach.

Davydenko speaks Russian as a native language, German as his second one, and English.

Davydenko started playing at the age of seven with his brother, Eduard.

During his junior tennis years, he moved to Salmtal, Germany with Eduard to further improve and participate in more tournaments.

In 2007, he applied for Austrian citizenship (so as to obtain dual citizenship), unsuccessfully.

He was motivated by the difficulties obtaining travel visa with the Russian passport.

And he wasn't given one because a sports minister in Austria was against while the other local authorities seemed to approve it.

According to Davydenko, the Austrian minister said: "It's too soon".

His biggest achievement was winning the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, and he also won three ATP Masters Series.

In mid-October 2014 Davydenko retired from playing professionally.