Nikolay Davydenko plays Lleyton Hewitt at the Kooyong Classic on Thursday.
Day one remained miraculously immune to the rain sweeping across the Melbourne area with all three matches at the Kooyong Classic managing to finish.
Hewitt pulled off a brilliant and unexpected victory over Mikhail Youzhny who enjoyed such a fantastic end to last season. Hewitt looked fairly sharp at the Hopman Cup and beating the world number ten 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 will have given him a vast amount of confidence ahead of the Aussie Open.
Today's match will provide a further test. Davydenko may be lower ranked than Youzhny but at the moment he is probably an even sterner test than his compatriot having begun the year in fantastic form, beating Rafael Nadal on the way to the Doha final last week. Davydenko also won in three sets on Wednesday, defeating world number six Tomas Berdych 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
It's a fascinating clash between two players of a very similar ilk. Both have worked their way to the top of the tennis ladder through speed, tenacity and a fantastic counter-punching ability. However while Hewitt has won all four of their previous matches, they have not played since 2007 and our pick is for Davydenko to edge this one in three again.
