Davydenko takes his anger out on Nadal

The 27-year-old Russian, subject of a long-running probe by officials, showed again last night that all the scrutiny has had no adverse effect on his actual tennis by hammering Rafael Nadal to win the Sony Ericsson Open title.

In form: Nikolay Davydenko

Playing at the peak of his powers, world No 4 Davydenko swept away the world No 2 6-4, 6-2 in just 83 minutes to secure his second Masters Series title at this most fraught time of his career.

Fired by indignation at what he considers his unjust treatment by the ATP Tour, the slight and balding Russian came through to win the tournament despite having had to save match-points in his opening two matches.

He is certainly a battler on and off the court, and has doggedly protested his innocence since early last August, when an inquiry was launched into the irregular betting patterns that occurred around his retirement from a match at the Poland Open. As Sportsmail revealed, no evidence has been found against him to date.

Describing him as a mere battler hardly does justice to the quality of shot-making on display yesterday, nor the fact that he has consistently been at the front of the pack chasing Roger Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the last 12 months.

Given Federer's present woes, a victory in this match might have allowed Nadal to claim that he is now the best player in the world, regardless of what the rankings say.

But he found the penetration of Davydenko's groundstrokes such that he pressed too hard, particularly when faced with the Russian's brilliant cross court forehand.

In front of a packed stadium — which was not the case for Serena Williams' triumph in Saturday's women's final against Jelena Jankovic — Davydenko broke the Spaniard twice in both sets to secure victory.

Nadal looked somewhat deflated, but like many of the European claycourt experts has been unhappy at having to be in America for a month to play just this tournament and Indian Wells. The principle reason, unbelievably, has been to fit in with television coverage here of the national college basketball championships.

As hardcourts are not his favoured surface, Nadal can at least be happy with his overall form as he prepares to try to repeat his dominance on the clay of recent spring seasons.

■ ELENA BALTACHA yesterday offered encouragement for the future of British women's tennis when she won the Koddaert Open in Torhout, Belgium, her second title in as many weeks. The 24- year-old, who won the Jersey title seven days before, beat former top 50 player Iveta Benesova 6-7, 6-1, 6-4 and will now be well inside the top 150 again.