Beaten Davydenko planning radical action

New York: Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko said he had thrown all his rackets in the bin and was considering going “somewhere to get my brain changed” after he was upended at the US Open on Thursday.

The Masters Cup champion became the highest seed to fall in the men’s event when he was thrashed 6-3 6-4 6-2 by Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the second round. The usually consistent Davydenko was all at sea from the start and world number 38 Gasquet did not even have to play his best to clinch victory and a place in the last 32. Davydenko said he had tried everything he could to improve but nothing worked. “My serve was OK but my return was completely nowhere,” he told reporters. “I destroyed myself. I had no confidence. “I changed all my rackets every set and it didn’t work. After the US Open I will completely change my rackets. I just now threw all my old rackets into the garbage.” Davydenko missed 11 weeks earlier this year after breaking his left wrist and has only won back-to-back matches once since returning in June. Reports that his wife, Irina, could replace his brother Eduard as his coach were “a joke”, but he said he might need an even more radical approach to find his form. “I don’t know if it’s my wrist or my head,” he said. “I don’t know if I need to have a coach, a mental coach or if I need to go somewhere to change my brain. “My wife knows much about tennis because she has travelled with me for seven years, sitting with my brother in the box. “So she can tell me a few things, but not like completely coaching, coming every day to the court. It’s better she go shopping in New York. She’s not so stupid to come on the court.” Gasquet will now play Brazilian 26th seed Thomaz Bellucci or South African Kevin Anderson for a place in the fourth round. Last year’s US Open was just Gasquet’s second event back after a two-year ban for taking cocaine was rescinded by a tribunal, who accepted his explanation that the substance had entered his system through a kiss in a nightclub with a woman. Bureau Report