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Heading into the 2010 Australian Open, Nikolay Davydenko beat both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to claim the title at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

Let's face it, after all these years away from the limelight, and after the controversy over his potential match-fixing, he's liking the positive attention. Listen to a few of his other answers in his latest presser:

Q: Would you like to write a book? Because you're a great character.

Write a book? You mean humor book, Tennis book? Action book? . . . No, no no, I would like to go in business, but I don't want to lose my money also in business.

Q: Why are you talking about money all the time?

Because we are Russian (smiling). Russian always talking about money. And you know all Russian can get only cash, not like you guys, only credit cards also.

Q: Are you a vodka drinker [oh, how the press loves this guy]?

Yes.

Q: Is that where you get your strength?

I don't drink so much because you see, I'm skinny. Sometimes mix with Red Bull. Get power in night club or disco.

Q: Would you want to have kids so they can see you play?

Yes. No. Yes and no. [My wife] is scared if I start to, with kids, lose tennis and go down, stray.

Davydenko is indeed a wonderful character, and as a tennis writer part of me would hate to see him rein himself in. So far he seems oblivious to how the word "scared" might be playing around the grounds or the locker room. But he may soon get sick of hearing it and having to spend time thinking about it. And while Federer, after two losses to Davydenko, doesn't need to put anything on his bulletin board to motivate him for their match-up, showing the world again that Darth Federer is scared of no one might seem like a nice fringe benefit of beating that mouthy little Russian for the 13th time.

I've said recently that I didn't think Davydenko could win a major simply because he doesn't think of himself as a Grand Slam champion. He doesn't have the swagger or the all-consuming, I-must-prove-something-to-myself mindset. He doesn't feel entitled to titles. His image of himself to this point has never depended on winning majors, the way Federer bases his entire year around winning Wimbledon. All of this makes Davydenko a more engaging athlete, but it doesn't make triumphing at the ultimate level, in Melbourne, any easier.

The day that Davydenko doesn't use a word like "scared" to describe his opponents, the day he gives us a thousand-yard stare and says that he and his opponents "have a mutual respect for each other," that he's just gonna go out and give it 110 percent, you know he's serious about creating a legacy as a Grand Slam champion rather than just making enough money so he never has to work again. It will be a sad day for the tennis press, but it might be a good day for Davydenko. He'll have learned his lesson. It should be an easy one for a money-hungry Russian to understand: Being interesting is bad for business.

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