Davydenko ends season on a high

London, Nov. 29: Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko won the ATP World Tour Finals title with a straight sets victory over Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro at London’s O2 Arena.

Last year’s beaten finalist Davydenko won 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 24 minutes to claim the season-ending title, disputed among the world’s top eight players.

The win meant Davydenko jumped up the rankings to finish the season as the world number six, while Del Potro remains at number five.

The Russian scooped $1,510,000 in prize money, while the Argentinian collected $740,000.

Davydenko became the first Russian to win the season-ending tournament.

“Coming here as number seven and winning the tournament, I surprised myself,” said Davydenko, who downed the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open champions en route to claiming the title.

Del Potro told him: “Congratulations, you had a great, great week, you beat everybody, you are a great, great champion.”

Both finalists finished second in their groups. In Saturday’s semi-finals, Davydenko beat Swiss world number one Federer 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, while Del Potro defeated Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-7 (1/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).