Old pro Nikolay Davydenko, a former top five threat, schooled Ukrainian young gun Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 6-1 on Monday to get off to a rollicking start at the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters.
The 31-year-old Russian left Dolgopolov, eight years his junior, wondering what happened to the game which produced a title in Washington eight days ago on pre-US Open hardcourts.
Since beating German Tommy Haas for the final in the American capital, Dolgopolov has lost two matches, winning just four games in the process.
Davydenko, 2008 Cincinnati semi-finalist, said he wished he could roll back the years: “I am playing well but there is no way that I will get younger, it’s to much to ask,” said the Russian as he played for the first time since the London Olympics.
Davydenko, an eight-year veteran with an 11-8 mark at the tournament, also won the pair’s only other match in the Barcelona first round in April, 2011. Dolgopolov exits without having ever won a match in three Cincinnati attempts. In another men’s match before light rain arrived as forecast, Italian Andreas Seppi beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-4, 6-4.
In the women’s draw, a pair of unseeded Germans advanced into the second round on the day in which world number 13 Ana Ivanovic was forced to withdraw after a foot injury suffered last week in Montreal.
