Davydenko recalls how it was a trial to step onto court

London: Nikolay Davydenko has admitted that he nearly put a stop to his tennis career following allegations about him allegedly being involved in match-fixing on the ATP World Tour.

"Every tournament I played it was very tough to play. I would have liked to stop tennis for a couple of months. I just didn't have the will to play," Davydenko admitted.

"Maybe I have a good coach and I got some real support from my family. They gave me a chance really to forget everything and concentrate on the tennis. After that I just tried to forget everything quickly and keep tennis as a priority," the Russian admitted.

The ATP launched a match-fixing investigation of Davydenko's match against an unheard of player, Martin Vassalo Arguello, in Sopot in August 2007 after several large bets were placed at an online British gambling company, Betfair in Arguello's favour.

Davydenko won the first set 6-2 and then withdrew from the match during the third set with a foot injury.

Since then it has been revealed that nine people based in Russia had bet $1.5 million on Davydenko losing while two unknown people stood to gain $6 million from the loss. A total of $7 million was wagered on the match, ten times the usual amount. Due to these irregularities, all bets were voided.

In September 2008, Davydenko, along with Arguello, was cleared of any involvement in match-fixing.

On Saturday, the Russian got past the world's best player in a gruelling three sets at the O2. "I had beaten everybody in [the] top ten, except Federer," he said.

"For this to come in 2010, at the end of the season in 2009 itself, is a great feeling and ahievement," he said.