An ugly duckling becomes a swan

The Marathon-Man Nikolai Davydenko clinched a spot in his first ever US Open SF. Excellent achievement for the Russian. Everyone involved in tennis stuff knows which kind of player he’s: he moves good on the court, running good, and has a good control from the baseline. That’s about it. Simple to explain, but actually if you watch him playing you’ll be figuring out how he can easily handle a 30 shots rally, running all around the court, catch his breath and get freshed for the next point.
He played 71 matches and 25 tournaments year to date, I must say sometimes struggling and losing at 1st round (Toronto, Cincy, Wimbledon, f.e.).
Against Haas a seesaw match, not boring at all, with Tommy serving like God in the first 2 sets and displaying great groundstrokes all around (what an awesome running backhand winner after a long rally in the 2nd). Looked like he’d win in 3 sets but in 9th game of the 3rd Tommy gave half a chance and Kolya nicked the opportunity and quickly came back. From there on, the things turned around. Tommy ran out of gas and the Russian won in 5. That’s why he's a top ten player, fights hard on every point, even when ain't gonna play well and comes out on top. So an unpopular guy, starting to bald, with a consistent (not flashy) game, getting rid of sponsorship, is “King” for another day.