Davydenko cruises past Haas
Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko continued his march through the bottom half of the men's draw at the US Open as he reached the semi-finals with the minimum of fuss against Tommy Haas in New York.
Russia's Davydenko set up a last-four meeting with number 15 David Ferrer of Spain with a 6-3 6-3 6-4 defeat of the German 10th seed, continuing his record of not having dropped a set at this year's final grand slam of the year.
The two had fought out a five-set battle at the same stage of the championship 12 months ago, with Davydenko coming back from two sets down to reach his first grand slam semi-final.
Haas came into this contest having endured a lengthier trip to the last eight, starting with two four-set matches followed by two more going the distance, including Monday's gruelling five-set victory over sixth-seeded American James Blake.
Yet Haas had started more brightly than the Russian, having break points in the fourth game before Davydenko held his serve. When the break came in the seventh game it was Davydenko who took control, wearing down his rival with a relentless barrage of ground strokes as Haas lost his cool, slamming his racquet against an advertisement board in frustration.
Davydenko served the next game to love, closing out with an ace to consolidate the break and quickly earned three set points off the Haas serve in the following game. The German saved two but could not keep Davydenko at bay any further and the fourth seed clinched the set in the 48th minute.
When the Russian broke in the fourth game of the second set to go 3-1 up it seemed as if the German was losing his grip on the game but Haas then found some fight, breaking back to 2-4 before Davydenko regained control and served for the set at 5-3.
Haas continued to hang in there with Davydenko as the third set got under way but yet again succumbed, seeing his serve broken in fifth game as he went 2-3 down
Haas again staged a rally to break back to love at 3-3 only to again wilt as Davydenko broke back again.
There was no way back from there and although Haas kept fighting it was an ultimately frustrating experience as Davydenko became the first man to book his place in the last four.
