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By Alberto Amalfi

(July 8, 2010) Olympic Stadium will never be confused with a demolition derby track though it will be transformed into a comeback collision course tomorrow morning.

Two of tennis' purest ball strikers — Argentina's David Nalbandian and Russian Nikolay Davydenko — square off in the opening match of Russia's Davis Cup quarterfinal against Argentina and Moscow.

Born 13 months apart, Nalbandian and Davydenko have quietly produced an entertaining rivalry between two guys who can hug the baseline, hit the ball early and make such consistently clean contact you might wonder if their strings were slathered with soap before hand.

This will be their 12th career meeting — Nalbandian holds a 6-5 advantage though Davydenko has won three of the last four — and both enter a critical match in the best-of-five match tie, coming off injuries.

Nalbandian underwent right hip surgery on May 13, 2009 and missed the rest of the season. Injury-induced inactivity caused Nalbandian to finish outside the top 100 for the first time since 2000, his rookie year on the ATP Tour.

Injuries have limited Nalbandian to 12 matches this season. Nalbandian has been nursing a slight tear in the abductor muscle of his right leg and has not played since suffering a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Novak Djokovic in the Monte Carlo quarterfinals as his ranking has dropped to No. 153.

The sixth-ranked Davydenko began the season with a bang in Doha, collecting his 20th ATP title after saving two match points at 5-6 and 7-8 in second set tie breaker to beat Rafael Nadal 0-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 in final. Davydenko tested Roger Federer in the Australian Open before going away. He suffered a fractured left write in Indian Wells that forced him to the sidelines for three months — that must have felt like an eternity to Davydenko who seems to spend more time on court than Mohamed Lahyani.

Returning to tournament tennis in Halle last month, Davydenko has played four matches — he fought back for a five-set Wimbledon win over Kevin Anderson before bowing to Daniel Brands in round two — and believes he will be sharper than the idle Nalbandian.

"I don’t know if he will be more confident, as I have played a few matches, some of which went to five sets, while he hasn’t really played since the clay-court season," Davydenko told Davis Cup.com.

Davis Cup brings out the best in Nalbandian, who beat World No. 232 Andreas Vinciguerra 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the decisive fifth match to clinch Argentina's 3-2 win over host Sweden in Stockholm in the Davis Cup first round in March. Nalbandian believes Davydenko will also be challenged by trying to shake off match rust tomorrow.

"He’s coming back from injury too so I think it’s going to be tough for both of us," Nalbandian said.