Nadal lost a few days ago and Davy lost aswell so both of these boys looking for a win to advance into the next round. Will Davydenko purposely loose this to Nadal? Rafa is at good odds and if Davy was to loose no one would be suspicious over it. Davy would not pass up a chance to put a few thousand on Nadal.


R. Nadal vs. N. Davydenko - Match Odds

Yeah, I have no idea about this one. I can't imagine Davy would throw it, the odds just aren't juicy enough. On form Davy should win this in straight sets.

Smashed him.

Nadal's play is getting predictable. The top players are beginning to pick him off. Reminds me a bit of the demise of Llyeton Hewitt.

I'm saying that he needs to adapt his game or he will suffer a serious decline. He can't just keep pounding balls from the baseline and beating players with his superior run. He is not as quick as he used to be (thanks largely to ongoing knee complaints) while his opponents have improved their fitness (notably Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco).

Nadal needs to improve his first serve to win him some easy points and he also needs to work on his game at the net to mix up his game a bit. This is my opinion anyway, I'm no pro tennis coach - but it seems pretty obvious that his baseline slog and run game is no longer fearsome.

As for the Davydenko gamble, you need to wait until his opponent is big odds (aka Safin the other month) before you go the Russian Mafia plunge.