Davydenko Bakes Bagel En Route to ATP Poertschach Title

2005 French Open semifinalist Nikolay Davydenko showed he is on-form for another run next week in Paris, on Saturday steamrolling unseeded Romanian Andrei Pavel 6-0, 6-3 for the ATP title at Poertschach, his first title of the year.

"It seemed easy because of the result but it is never really the case," Davydenko said. "I think I started really well, I was trying to make winners and fighting for every ball and I had really good results...I arrived in Poertschach a little disappointed with my results in Hamburg, because I was playing well last week and I lost in the quarters being a set up and having many opportunities."

The win raised the Russian to 6-2 in career finals.

"Davydenko played an amazing match," Pavel said. "He played amazing the whole week so there wasn't much I could do today. I had a bad start, which made him more relaxed and I was pretty much running after him the whole match after that. In my opinion, he is a good candidate for the Roland Garros title."

Since dropping three consecutive opening-round matches at Valencia, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Davydenko has won 14 of 17 matches on clay leading into Roland Garros.

Top seeds Paul Hanley of Australia and Jim Thomas of the U.S. defeated Oliver Marach of Austria and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 10-5 for the doubles title in their first event as a team.

"It was a great pleasure to play with Paul this week," Thomas said. "He decided to play Saturday, a couple hours before the sign-in. For me to get a chance to play with someone of his level, when he's playing at or near his best, was fantastic. I'll play with Paul Goldstein at the French."