Estoril Open 2003 News and Events

Davydenko celebrates with his girlfriend Irina
© ATP

Russia's Nikolay Davydenko captured the second ATP title of his career with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Argentina's Agustin Calleri in the final of the Estoril Open.

Davydenko, who won the title in Adelaide on hard courts in the first week of the year, took 1 hour, 16 minutes to claim his first clay court championship.

"I'm very happy," said Davydenko. "I think for every tennis player, you are very happy to win a tournament. It was great to be in the final but to win is an unbelievably good feeling."

The 21-year-old Davydenko, who lives in Salmtal, Germany, adapted much better to the windy conditions on court Central, while Calleri struggled to find his rhythm.

The Russian was a break down at 4-3 in the first but hit straight back to level matters and take a 5-4 lead before a five-minute rain break delayed proceedings at the Estadio Nacional. The delay proved to be costly for Calleri, who dropped his serve for a second time to lose the opening set.

Errors

In the second, Davydenko broke again to lead 3-1 and played consistent tennis from the baseline as his opponent made numerous unforced errors.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Davydenko opened up a 40-0 lead, and, despite missing the first two match points, another mis-hit backhand from Calleri sealed the victory for the Russian.

"It's important for me to play more matches and play every week," added Davydenko. "If I win more matches I feel good and I played some very good tennis coming into the final. I didn't know what to expect today because it was very windy. Calleri had to do something special to hit winners and he made more mistakes. I tried to keep it simple and not make mistakes from the baseline."

Davydenko came into the tournament short of match play having broken his left wrist in Memphis in February and was forced to miss a month before returning in Miami. But the Russian, who lost both of his singles matches for Russia in the Davis Cup tie in Argentina last week, opened his Estoril Open campaign with a victory of No. 3 seed Sjeng Schalken and followed with wins over Alexander Waske, fellow countryman and No. 6 seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and No. 7 seed Max Mirnyi to reach the final.

Impressive

Calleri, playing in his third ATP final, was hoping to win his second ATP title after winning the title in Acapulco on clay earlier this year. The 26-year-old Argentine had not dropped a set en route to the final with impressive wins over Portuguese wild card Diogo Rocha, No. 8 seed Jarkko Nieminen, No. 4 seed Fernando Gonzalez and No. 5 seed Tommy Robredo.

"Nikolay played a very consistent match," said Calleri. "I tried to hit to his forehand, because I knew that was his weak spot, but he just surprised me hitting every forehand very strong. I tried to control the game but he was the one who did that. At 4-3 in the first set I missed an important forehand and after that he started to play very deep to the baseline and that was the key to the match."

Despite the disappointment of losing in the final, Calleri added: "You don't have the opportunity to play finals every week, so this has been very fantastic week."