Admiration is not a thing that has been afforded in too abundant quantities for Nikolay Davydenko. Even before the finger of suspicion was pointed at the Russian for possibly allowing himself to become involved the murky world of match fixing at last August’s Polish Open in Sopot, he was regarded as the grey man of the world’s top ten.

Rarely did he attract any form of media interest. Indeed many was the occasion that Davydenko was left sitting on his own at a table while the crowd of writers and television crews were three or four deep around the likes of Federer, Nadal, Roddick and other supposedly more charismatic players.

Things are likely to be a little different now he has won the biggest tournament on the ATP tour after beating Rafael Nadal to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Nadal. However what a pity it was that those who govern the men’s game and have subjected Davydenko to a life of purgatory for the last eight months were not there to applaud his victory.

This was not just a win for the finest tennis player of the course of the event – Davydenko also ending the American hopes of Andy Roddick as well as Andy Murray’s opening round assailant Mario Ancic. It proved a massive inner strength as he shrugged off all the doubt and suspicion over his own integrity to win one of the most prized trophies in the game.

Now he may be revered as a quality performer rather than defiled as somebody suspected of being conducive to corruption. It did not matter that Davydenko was one of the most relentless players on the tour, words of commendation by the likes of Andy Murray who nominated the slight man with thinning hair as one of the most difficult and accomplished performers on the world stage tended to fall upon deaf ears.

Quite frankly nobody took too much notice of the man from Volgograd who had reached Grand Slam semi-finals at the French Open (twice) and the US Open until that dubious day last August when he faced up to Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arguello. After Davydenko won the first set emphatically, several large bets were placed in Arguello’s favour with the online gambling exchange Betfair. With suspicions raised, business was eventually suspended as Davydenko withdrew from the match during the third set citing a foot injury.

He has vehemently maintained his innocence ever since but more controversy followed in St. Peterburg when he was given a code violation warning by umpire Jean-Philippe Dercq for not giving his best effort against the young Croatian Marin Cilic. He was later slapped with a $US 2,000 fine by the ATP that was rescinded upon appeal. Soon after he struggled so badly with his serve at the Masters Series event in Paris that he was again spoken to in demeaning terms by the umpire.

Not surprisingly all the pressures got to Davydenko and he admitted to suffering depression late last year but he has fought back in positive fashion this year, maintaining the ongoing investigation is simply a matter for the ATP and his lawyers. The fact that eight months have now elapsed and now form of any guilt has been uncovered begs the question of why the men’s tour does not finally call off the hounds?

Davydenko has complied with the investigators’ every wish, he has turned over all his telephone records and got those close to him such as his coach and brother Eduard to do the same. He has acted in exemplary fashion and at the same time got on with fine tuning his game.

After suffering defeat a couple of nights earlier Roddick likened the Russian’s game to that of Andre Agassi and at a place where the man from Las Vegas won the title so many times, that is praise indeed. Now after totally outplaying Nadal, registering two breaks of serve in each set to win 6-4,6-2, with a performance amazingly carried out without any spare rackets in his bag, he has strengthened his position as the best final player on the tour.

Of the 15 career finals Davydenko has played, he’s won 12 and attained an 80% success rate. Compare that to Nadal whose percentage is 76% and Federer who currently stands at 75%. Statistics don’t lie, this man is one of the best.

The time has come to give Nikolay Davydenko both enormous respect and long overdue peace of mind.