Chair umpire warns Davydenko over play

ST. PETERSBURG—Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, interviewed in a suspicious match earlier this year, said he was warned for not playing hard enough by the chair umpire in his loss to Marian Cilic at the St. Petersburg Open on Thursday.
Davydenko won the first set in 27 minutes, but drew a rebuke from chair umpire Jean-Philippe Dercq in the third set before succumbing 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.
“When I made a double fault, he gave me a notice for a wrong behavior on the court as if I was throwing the match,” Davydenko said. “I was surprised. I’ve never heard anything like this before. No matter how I’d played, no matter what had happen to me, I was never given such a notice.”
The ATP is investigating, and has spoken to Davydenko about, an August match in Poland in which online gambling site Betfair voided bets involving the Russian because of irregular betting patterns. The Russian withdrew from that match against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello in the third set because of a foot injury.
Davydenko said that during the exchange, Dercq asked him about his condition, but Davydenko first said there was nothing wrong and later said the problem was in his legs.
“He could not solve my problem anyway, that why I first told him I was OK, but I didn’t play the way I did in the first set. That’s why he gave me a notice,” Davydenko said. “Later I told him that my legs have collapsed. I could not move,” Cilic’s victory was the second in seven weeks against Davydenko. “It was very tough for me,” the 102nd-ranked Cilic said of the first set. “He was making winners almost from everywhere.”
But Cilic equalized the match when the fourth-ranked Russian made four double faults in the second set. The Russian double-faulted three times in the third game to fall behind 3-0 in the third set and draw Dercq’s warning. “I felt I wanted, but could not (win),” Davydenko said. “It really knocked me out and I lost my serve and the second set and psychologically I was no longer on the court. I was completely switched off. It’s a rare thing but it has happen.”
The Russian qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai next month by winning the Kremlin Cup two weeks ago.
In a later match, No. 2 seed Andy Murray beat Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier Thursday, third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny beat Mario Ancic 6-4, 6-2, and fourth-seeded Potito Starace defeated qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh 7-6 (4), 6-2. Sixth-seeded Fernando Verdasco also reached the quarterfinals, ousting Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-4.
Youzhny, the 2004 champion, broke Ancic in the third game of the first set and won five consecutive games for a 5-1 lead in the second. Serving for the match at 5-2, the 19th-ranked Youzhny saved four break points before closing it out on his second match point. “I played well today. I served well and received well,” Youzhny said. “There was a struggle only in the last game on my serve. But before that I held strongly, while there was a struggle on his serve through the entire match.” “He (Youzhny) played a really good match,” said Ancic, who missed most of the season because of mononucleosis. “I was feeling dizzy and weak because of what happened to me this year, which is normal”.—Agencies