Play Better!

Already at the center of tennis' gambling probe, No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko was criticized for his play at a second consecutive tournament.

Davydenko, the defending champion, finished with 10 double-faults and 36 unforced errors in a 6-2, 6-2 third-round defeat against No. 22 Marcos Baghdatis. The Russian was booed during a match in which he lost serve five times, and drew a rebuke from the chair umpire.

A week ago, Davydenko was fined $2,000 by the ATP for "lack of best effort" during a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to then-No. 102 Marin Cilic at the St. Petersburg Open. Davydenko was given a hard time during that match by the chair umpire, too. Awesome insult to injury - you lost and you have to pay for your shitty effort. If only they enforced that across the other professional sports...

Chair umpire Cedric Mourier spoke to Davydenko at a changeover during the Baghdatis match, asking him what was wrong with his serve. Davydenko responded by asking what else he could do.

"Serve like me," Mourier said. "If you serve like me, you put it in the box. That's it."

Fans heckling players is one thing, but to have the striped chair jockeys harassing you, well, that requires an extra level of suck on your part.

Davydenko had said Wednesday he was hampered by a sore elbow, but he didn't give a direct answer when Baghdatis asked him what was wrong as they shook hands at the end of the match. "I cannot serve," Davydenko said later. "That was happening in St. Petersburg. I don't have pain really. I have no pain in my elbow. I need to find what's the reason I cannot really serve."

In August, online gambling exchange Betfair voided all bets on a match after Davydenko withdrew against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello in the third set because of a foot injury. The ATP is still looking into that match. This guy sounds like his game is falling apart. He should just retire and come back in a year like most tennis players do. His game can't get any worse, right?