The Sydney Herald reports:

WORLD No.3 Nikolay Davydenko yesterday slammed the Sydney International, labelling it a small tournament that no one cared about. The 25-year-old joined the multitude of big name players to pull out of the Australian Open lead-up event with apparent injuries. Davydenko had lost the first set 6-4 to Frenchman Paul Henri-Mathieu when he pulled out of the second round match yesterday with a suspected stress fracture in his right foot. When asked why he thought so many players were pulling out, Davydenko said: "Because it's a small tournament. So I don't think nobody care about here." He suggested another problem was that the court surface in Sydney was no longer similar to the one the players will play on next week in the grand slam event. The implication was that players were keen to get to Melbourne earlier to get used to the conditions. "It should be the same - [the] balls and surface normally is the same, but after I play here last year, like I play here every year, [it was] a little bit different," Davyenko said. "The court is a little bit more slow and balls flying not so fast like here."