Davydenko hoping to be in the limelight

Nikolay Davydenko hopes his displays to win the ATP World Tour Finals will finally allow him to step out of the shadow of compatriot Marat Safin who retired this month.
The slender 28-year-old could probably walk around the streets of Moscow or London unnoticed, even with the $1.5 million cheque from Sunday’s 6-3 6-4 victory against Juan Martin del Potro burning a hole in his pocket.

Throughout his impressive career he has remained almost anonymous to all but serious tennis followers. He admitted that he hardly signed an autograph this week at London’s O2 Arena, despite beating Rafael Nadal in the round-robin stage and stunning world No.1 Roger Federer en route to the final.

“Everybody concentrates on Nadal and Federer,” he told reporters after landing the biggest of his 19 career titles.

“Everybody’s looking this way, not on me. Maybe now, after London, I’ll be just a small part famous here in London. And I hope that I will become famous in Russia. For me it’s really important. It was always disappointing when I played against Marat and it was 80 percent support for him. I hope now that Marat is finished everybody supports me.”