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  • Warsaw Semifinal: Nikolay Davydenko vs. Fabio Fognini

    6/14/08 4:27 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Fabio Fognini crashed the Warsaw semifinal party that is otherwise restricted to the tournament's top three seeds. He'll have to upset top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko if he wants to continue his run.

    It will be the first career meeting for Nikolay Davydenko and Fabio Fognini when the two players square off in the semifinals of the Orange Warsaw Open on Saturday. That's not surprising considering Fognini is just now breaking onto the scene at the ATP level.

    The 21-year-old Italian spent most of 2007 doing damage in clay-court Challenger events, but now he has shown he is ready for the bigger stages of tennis. Fognini, who plays almost exclusively on clay at this point in his young career, reached the semifinals in Costa Do Sauipe earlier in the year and also made it to the quarterfinals in Vina del Mar. His victims this week have been Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Christophe Rochus, and No. 5 seed Guillermo Canas, whom he defeated 7-5, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.

    If Fognini adds Davydeno to that list, it would be by far his biggest win ever. Warsaw's top seed is ranked No. 4 in the world and he has been in fine form this year, even winning the Masters Series Miami title. Davydenko suffered a surprise loss to Ivan Ljubicic in the third round of the French Open but is already turning things around this week. The Russian blasted Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-2 in round one, rallied past Jiri Vanek 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, then erased compatriot Evgeny Korolev 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

    Fognini has the clay-court game to give Davydenko some problems. The key will be for him to handle the moment of an ATP semifinal better than he did in Costa Do Sauipe, where he lost to Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 6-1. It's almost certainly going to be a lot closer than that tomorrow, but Davydenko should be too steady from the baseline to allow his opponent even a set.

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