Davydenko comes in as the favorite in his match against Nadal.

Rafael Nadal cannot overtake Roger Federer for the year end world number 1 ranking.  Federer beat Murray earlier today in round robin play and in doing so Fed clinched top spot for the season's end.

Even with top spot out of reach though, Nadal simply needs to save face in London because people are losing respect for his game.

In his round robin match against Nikolay Davydenko at the ATP World Tour Finals, Nadal has come in as an underdog despite outranking Davydenko on tour. 

But at this point Nadal's odds to win the match are still too short to bet.

Even when Nadal was playing better tennis than what he is playing right now he was never really dominant against Davydenko on hard court.  In their 4 matches on that surface over the years Davydenko has beaten Nadal 3 times, including wins at the Paris Masters Series in 2008 and at the 2008 Masters Series Miami.

Daydenko, who also beat Nadal not too long ago in the Shanghai final, has not been beaten by Nadal on hard court since 2006.  If he, Davydenko, can beat Nadal on that surface when times were happier for the Nadal contingent then it stands to reason that Davdydenko should beat Nadal now, as things are hardly going well for the Spaniard.

Stan James and bet365 are both offering prices to pound with Davydenko as they have set his price at -137 (about 5/7) and that bet is our recommendation. 

You have to be the "die hard" type to back Nadal at this point but Nadal 'gamblers' can bet on Nadal with Sportingbet at +114 (about 23/20) although we do NOT recommend that action at all.

Nadal might be great again in the future but right now he doesn't look like he belongs in the top 10 and if he doesn't improve his game in early 2010, with all the tour points he has to protect, out of the top 10 is where he might be when French Open seedings are announced.

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