THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHANGHAI, China — Top-ranked Roger Federer ended his two-match losing streak, beating No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 6-3 Wednesday and boosting his chances of defending his Masters Cup title.
Federer still has to beat No. 5 Andy Roddick on Friday, though, to have a serious chance of making the semifinals in the season-ending tournament that features the top eight men’s singles players.
Roddick was sharp as he beat No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez 6-1, 6-4 later Wednesday to improve to 2-0 in round-robin play. He committed only seven unforced errors and never faced a break point.
"You have good days where everything feels pretty clean, and this was one of those," Roddick said.
In doubles play, Daniel Nestor of Toronto and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas moved another step closer to the semifinals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria.
The top seeds, who won the French Open this year but split after the U.S. Open to play with other partners, are now 2-0 at the Masters Cup. They play Czech duo Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner in their final group match Friday.
Both Roddick and Gonzalez won their opening matches, with the Chilean upsetting Federer. It was Federer’s second consecutive loss, the first time he had lost twice in a row in 4{ years.
Despite a few glitches along the way, including 39 unforced errors to just 23 winners, Federer looked extremely focused as he improved his round-robin record to 1-1.
Davydenko fell to 0-2 and was virtually eliminated, barring injuries to players above the Russian in the Red Group.
Federer, who improved to 11-0 career against Davydenko and leads Roddick 14-1, was happy he got a chance to regain his touch in Shanghai.
"I realized he was not going to serve bombs all the way through, which allowed me to really get into the rallies from the baseline and try to manoeuvre him around a little bit," he said. "I thought I missed a few too many backhands maybe at the beginning, but then started to slice nicely."
He also realized that Davydenko, who has said he is exhausted after a heavy schedule, wasn’t at the top of his game, so he tried to extend rallies until the Russian made a mistake.
"That was the right play today," Federer said.
Swiss flags were draped around the indoor stadium and painted on the faces of several Chinese women in the crowd that was clearly pro-Federer.
Both players began well, with the first break opportunity not coming until Davydenko served at 3-4. Federer, going for winners but sometimes missing badly, quickly converted and served for the set only to see Davydenko break back. But Davydenko’s errors handed the set to Federer when he doubled-faulted at deuce, then missed a forehand wide.
Federer cut his mistakes and had Davydenko in constant trouble in the second set. He squandered four break points with Davydenko serving at 0-1 in a game that went to deuce six times, then ran off four games in a row to take command at 5-1. Davydenko got back one break as Federer served for the match and held to pull within 5-3.
But Federer was just too good in the end, shouting "Yes!" in clear relief when his rival committed his 26th unforced error on match point. Playing mostly from the baseline, Davydenko just didn’t have enough to hurt Federer, compiling only 11 winners.
"It’s not impossible to beat Federer," Davydenko said. "Today was really tough for me physically."
He said he was "really tired … mentally and physically" and will head to the Maldives for a couple days of rest before preparing for the Davis Cup final between Russia and the United States at the end of the month.
Roddick was untouchable on his powerful serve, losing only 11 points in nine service games.
Gonzalez was nowhere near as sharp as he was in beating Federer two nights earlier, and even his luck was bad. At one point, he had a lunging backhand that caught the net and barely dribbled over. But Roddick was in position to volley and tapped the ball back into the open court for a winner.
"I didn’t really feel good in the beginning," said Gonzalez, adding that his legs were tired and felt heavy. "After it was too late. And Andy plays really good."
With his own strong fan support that included a number of U.S. flags and four women who waved cutout letters spelling "A-N-D-Y," Roddick finished off the match with a strong forehand crosscourt that Gonzalez weakly hit short of the net.
Roddick said he was looking forward to trying to cut into his deficit against Federer. With a semifinal slot already in hand, he thinks he’ll have no pressure on him for a change, and he knows the rest of the field will be cheering for him.
"There’s no reason for me to be nervous," Roddick said. "I can go out there and let it fly."
In the Gold Group, second-ranked Rafael Nadal (1-1) will try to reach the semifinals when he plays Thursday against No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who is 0-2. David Ferrer (2-0), will meet Richard Gasquet (1-1).