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Nikolay Davydenko reflects on his performance - Source: Reuters -
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It had to be the worst question ever posed at a sports press
conference.
World number nine Nikolay Davydenko had just dumped defending
champion Novak Djokovic out of the Shanghai Masters 1000 and was
rightly basking in the glory.
Davydenko is a relaxed, likeable character and media sessions with
the 28-year-old Russian are always unpredictable.
Tennis players are interviewed every day of a tournament and hear a
lot of the same questions.
As a journalist it is always an aim to come up with a fresh
different angle, at best something they had not heard before, but
one Chinese reporter took it to extremes on Saturday.
"Nikolay & as you are not so good looking..."
What was this? All heads turned to the back of the room.
"...And you don't have to do a lot of things outside [off the
court] do you think that makes you put more focus on your
tennis?"
Nikolay's eyes rolled. Most were willing her to stop, but our
questioner, who perhaps writes for the Chinese version of Women's
Weekly, continued.
"And given a chance, would you like to be more good looking or keep
your life going like this?"
Wow. Things can get mixed up when you are speaking your second
language but surely this was very, very wrong.
Can you imagine a New Zealand netballer, cricketer or rugby player
facing this question?
To his credit Davydenko remained calm.
"You know, if I don't have a wife maybe I can say 'Yeah I am
disappointed' I'm not maybe good looking, but really I can have
many girls in Russia."
The crowd was loving this as the Russian played his trump
card.
"I don't know about China, but in Russia I still look good [and]
I'm feeling comfortable."
"I mean, it's okay. I really don't think about this, yeah?"
Game, set and (love) match Nikolay Davydenko.
tvnz.co.nz's Michael Burgess is in China courtesy of the Asia New
Zealand foundation and travelled there with Air New Zealand. He is
aiming to investigate the impact and legacy of the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games and will be writing about the sights and sounds of
China along the way.
