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January 22, 2010

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Home » Sports » Tennis

Davydenko, on a roll, forced to delay plans of starting a family

AS long as Nikolay Davydenko continues to rise up the rankings his wife has banned any hopes the Russian has of having children for fear it will distract him from his tennis.

The world No. 6, who believes the world's best players are now "scared" of him, revealed a surprisingly domestic nature after steam-rolling Ukraine's Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 in their second-round match at the Australian Open yesterday.

"Really, I would like (to) have kids now, like Federer already (has) two, or Hewitt," Davydenko said. "But my wife don't want to, you know, stay at home. She travel with me now.

"Now I'm top 10. She scared about if I start to, with kids, lose tennis and go down, stray. That's was because I start to miss and I want to go home, (not) want to practice. That's what is different."

Davydenko said Irina, who he married in 2006 and has recently enjoyed a holiday to the Maldives, could even make a good coach some day.

"She think always I can win everything. She analyze(s) because she's travelled with me already six years. Because in sitting with my (coach) brother, and brother always talking about what I did. She can coaching me already."

While kids are off the agenda for the moment, Davydenko does worry about money - "because we are Russian" - and his career after tennis.

"If you win some tournaments you can tell your kids what you did, because you know if my kids ask 'why papa, why are you not working now, what are you doing now?' I need to explain what I did, how my life was before."

Davydenko will play Juan Monaco of Argentina in the third round after needing less than two hours to despatch qualifier Marchenko.

Despite the ease of the win, he said the qualifier was not "scared" of him, unlike players in the top 10, all of whom he has beaten.

"Qualifying guys they really don't scare because there is nothing to lose. They just go, play and do the best result... I need to (be) scared against these guys."




 

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