Juan Martin Del Potro faces a stiff challenge in the Open 13 second round against Nikolay Davydenko.
Del Potro may be seeded fourth and one of the big favourites for the title this week but Davydenko actually leads their head-to-head 3-1, winning their last encounter 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals three years ago. That was some result for the Russian as Del Potro was at the peak of his powers having just won the US Open.
However since then both have struggled with wrist injuries though Davydenko has never quite fully recovered from his. He's shown glimpses of the tennis which took him to the top four in the world but it's not been consistent and he's currently ranked 40.
Having said that, just recently Davydenko appears to be on the right track again. He beat Richard Gasquet on the way to the Rotterdam semi-finals last week before really blowing his chance against Roger Federer. He pushed the eventual champion closer than anyone, leading by a set and break before Federer hit back.
It was far more than Del Potro managed. The Argentine looked nigh invincible all week and demolished Viktor Troicki and Tomas Berdych back to back but Federer has his number right now and he looked clueless as the Swiss outplayed him 6-1, 6-4.
Del Potro will be smarting from that loss and he'll be hoping to put it right today. It's a tough one for the Argentine but look for him to prevail in three sets.
