Points won by each set: [ 47-47, 8-9… ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
17 % Federer – 10 of 58
13 % Davydenko – 7 of 53
It seemed like the best opportunity for Davydenko [4] to finally defeat his toughest opponent. Federer [1] had won all their 11 preceding meetings, but entered the Estoril final in a suspicious form, not having played a final in his previous four tournaments (very long streak of this type for him at the time!) while Davydenko was on 11-match winning streak. The opening set (played in windy conditions) was unusual – no break of serve despite as many as six games with break points (each of players won three games saving break points) – but it proved once again that Davydenko couldn’t win a tight set against Federer. The Russian had a set point at 5:4 (ace), another one at 6:5 (forehand error), and came back in the tie-break from 1:5 to 5-all, only to lose the next two points. Admittedly he received a medical time-out after the set, but nothing indicated that he suffered some serious injury because playing his normal tennis he won the first two games of the 2nd set, and suddenly retired. Well, not for the first time in his career he did that being far away from defeat; throughout his career Davydenko was prone of delivering retirements (21 in total, 14th time in Estoril ’08). Federer commented: “It’s not the way you want to win a tournament but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. It’s great to win a title again and to straight away win my first clay court tournament of the season gives me great confidence going into Monte Carlo.” In Monte Carlo Federer lost the final to Nadal, who defeated in the semis… Davydenko.
Federer’s route to his 54th title:
1 Olivier Rochus 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
2 Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-2
Q Federico Gil 6-4, 6-1
S Denis Gremelmayr 2-6, 7-5, 6-1
W Nikolay Davydenko 7-6(5), 1-2 ret.