David Nalbandian

 

David Nalbandian

Country	Argentina
Residence	Córdoba, Argentina
Date of birth	January 1 1982 (1982--) (age 25)
Place of birth	Córdoba, Argentina
Height	m () [1]
Weight	79 kg (174 lb)
Turned Pro	2000
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$7,295,799
Singles
Career record:	223 - 113
Career titles:	5
Highest ranking:	No. 3 (March 20, 2006)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	SF (2006)
French Open	SF (2004, 2006)
Wimbledon	F (2002)
U.S. Open	SF (2003)
Doubles
Career record:	26 - 37
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	No. 116 (July 21, 2003)

Gervasio Esteban David Ezequiel Nalbandian (born January 1, 1982, Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina) is a professional tennis player from Argentina, known as David Nalbandian. As of July, 2007, he is the World's No. 24 male tennis player. ^[2]

Nalbandian is of Armenian descent; his last name means "one who makes horse shoes" (a farrier) in Persian.^{[citation needed]}

Tennis career

Nalbandian began playing tennis at age five. As a junior player, he won the 1998 Junior US Open singles against Roger Federer and the 1999 Junior Wimbledon doubles titles.

He turned professional in 2000. In 2001, he finished in the ATP top 50 for the first time. He finished 2002 as no. 1 Argentine and South American for the first time in his career, winning 2 ATP titles and reaching the Wimbledon final, where he set a record and stunned the tennis world by becoming the first man to reach the final on his senior debut, in 2002. Furthermore, his run to the 2002 Wimbledon final is even more remarkable, considering that it was his first ever pro tournament on grass.

Since then he has continued to climb his way up the ranks of professional tennis, and has finished each of the last two years ranked inside the year end top ten. In 2003 Nalbandian reached the semifinals of the US Open, where he lost to Andy Roddick, after holding a match point in the third set, after a few controversial calls. In 2004, Nalbandian reached the French Open semifinals losing to eventual champion Gastón Gaudio.

In 2005, Nalbandian won the Tennis Masters Cup, becoming only the second Argentine tennis player in history (after Guillermo Vilas in 1974) to win the end of year tournament. Having replaced American Andy Roddick, Nalbandian won two of his three group matches (l. to Roger Federer, d. Ivan Ljubičić and Guillermo Coria). In the semi-finals he defeated Russian Nikolay Davydenko and in the final, he beat World No. 1 Roger Federer in the fifth-set tiebreak. David also becomes the first player to win the cup without previously attaining a Grand Slam or Masters Series title.

In January of 2006, Nalbandian defeated Fabrice Santoro of France 7-5 6-0 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, becoming only the second active player (along with Roger Federer) to have reached the semi-finals of each Grand Slam tournament. He would lose the semifinals to Marcos Baghdatis in a hard fought five set match, despite holding a two-set-to-love advantage and then 4 games to 2 in the final set. In May, Nalbandian won the Estoril Open Tournament in Portugal for the second time, being one of three only men to achieve this accomplishment (Carlos Costa - 1992 and 1994, and Thomas Muster - 1995 and 1996). One month later, Nalbandian reached his second French Open semi-final. It was the first time in his career that he reached two Grand Slam semi-finals in one calendar year. He played Roger Federer and started very well, taking the first set 6-3 and going 3-0 up in the second set. At 5-2 down in the third set, Nalbandian decided to retire from the match, since he was suffering from abdominal injuries. At Wimbledon, Nalbandian was beaten in the third round - it was the first time he didn't reach the last 16. At the US Open, Nalbandian was beaten in the second round against former Grand Slam champion Marat Safin.

Nalbandian then competed in the Davis Cup Semi Final against Australia. David easily defeated Mark Philippoussis 6-4 6-3 6-3 to give Argentina a 1-0 lead. Nalbandian felt as if the crowd didn't get totally fired up because he was cruising through the match. When the draw for the Davis Cup semifinal was being made with Argentina vs. Australia, Nalbandian shook hands with Australian Mark Philippoussis and asked him to join the party on Saturday night, implying that Argentina would beat Australia 3-0 on Saturday. Nalbandian was indeed correct, and Argentina went on to thrash Australia 5-0. Nalbandian said the only thing he was disappointed that he didn't have the opportunity to beat Lleyton Hewitt, whom he thrashed in the Davis Cup quarterfinal in 2005 6-2 6-4 6-4 in Australia (Nalbandian's record against Hewitt is 1-3). Prior to the Davis Cup semifinal, Nalbandian said, "We beat them in Australia, and we're going to beat them again." Argentina went on to humiliate Australia, thrashing them 5-0. Nalbandian also fired up the clash with Australia by saying that Hewitt has no friends on the ATP Tour.

2007

2007 has seen Nalbandian suffer and drop out of the world's top twenty for the first time since 2003 after losing in the fourth round of the 2007 French Open to Nikolay Davydenko. Nalbandian also has suffered various abdominal injuries, a back injury and a leg injury. His Australian Open result was the fourth round where he was beaten by Tommy Haas. He also left his coach. Another loss was in the third round at the 2007 U.S. Open, where he fell to David Ferrer in a five setter.

Nalbandian, however, at the 2007 Madrid Masters, found good results. Nalbandian stunned two of the world's top three players. He took three sets to pass France's Arnaud Clément, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the first round, and then beat number nine seed and Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2). In the third round, he beat wildcard Juan Martín del Potro, also an Argentine, 6-2, 6-4, and then stunned number two-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinal. His good form carried him to his second top three win of the tournament, defeating Novak Đoković in the semifinals. He will meet Roger Federer in the final. He also reached the doubles semifinals with Guillermo Cañas, his compatriot, notching a win over Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett, the third seeds, 6-1, 6-3, and the U.S. Open doubles champions and fifth seeds Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle, 6-3, 3-6, [10-7]. The team lost in three sets, 6-1, 2-6, [10-4] to top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the semifinals. After the tournament, his singles ranking is due to move up to about number 15 from number 25.

Playing Style

Nalbandian employs a very aggressive baseline game, although he is capable of playing an all-court style. His main strengths lie in his groundstrokes and return game, and are complemented by his deft accuracy and incredible foot speed. His groundstrokes are technically sound and solid from both wings, and because of their depth, pace, and consistency, opponents often have difficulty breaking down one particular side. Nalbandian's trademark shot is his two-handed backhand down the line, which he often uses to set up point, by either hitting a clean winner, or forcing a weak return from the opponent. Nalbandian is also a sound volleyer, and if a situation calls for more aggressive play, he is often willing to finish points at the net.

Nalbandian's largest weakness is his serve, which is among the weakest of the top 50 players on the tour. Accordingly, he is broken often for a player of his ranking. Yet another weakness is the inconsistency in his mental game. While Nalbandian has proven his mental fortitude in countless matches (most recently during the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup final, when he beat Roger Federer in five tough sets, despite the latter leading two sets to love), he continues to have a tendency to relax at times when he is leading in a match, sometimes even to the point of losing. During the 2006 Australian Open semi-finals, Nalbandian suffered such a fate against Marcos Baghdatis; Nalbandian dropped the final three sets of the match, after holding a two sets-to-none lead against the young Cypriot.

Trivia

• David Nalbandian is sponsored by Yonex. His racquet of choice is the Yonex RDS 001, and also wears both Yonex clothing and shoes.
• Nalbandian is a good friend of compatriot Guillermo Coria and keeps a good relationship with all Argentine players, especially Agustín Calleri.
• Nalbandian is a fan of the River Plate football team and has his own rally team called Tango Rally with Marcos Ligato as the main driver.

Grand Slam singles finals

Runner-ups (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2002	Wimbledon	Lleyton Hewitt	6-1, 6-3, 6-2

Tennis Masters Cup singles finals

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2005	Shanghai	Roger Federer	6-7(4), 6-7(11), 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(3)

ATP Masters Series singles finals

Runner-ups (3)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2003	Montreal	Andy Roddick	6-1, 6-3
2004	Rome	Carlos Moyà	6-3, 6-4, 6-0
2004	Madrid	Marat Safin	6-2, 6-4, 6-3

Titles (5)

Singles wins (5)

Legend Grand Slam (0) Tennis Masters Cup (1) ATP Masters Series (0) ATP Tour (4)

Titles by Surface Hard (0) Clay (3) Grass (0) Carpet (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	8 April 2002	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Jarkko Nieminen	6-4, 7-6(5)
2.	21 October 2002	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Fernando González	6-4, 6-3, 6-2
3.	1 May 2005	Munich, Germany	Clay	Andrei Pavel	6-4, 6-1
4.	20 November 2005	Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai, China	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	6-7(4), 6-7(11), 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(3)
5.	7 May 2006	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Nikolay Davydenko	6-3, 6-4

Singles runner-ups (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	1 October, 2001	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Félix Mantilla	7-6(2), 6-4
2.	8 July, 2002	Wimbledon	Grass	Lleyton Hewitt	6-1, 6-3, 6-2
3.	11 August, 2003	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Andy Roddick	6-1, 6-3
4.	27 October, 2003	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Guillermo Coria	walkover
5.	10 May, 2004	Rome, Italy	Clay	Carlos Moyà	6-3, 6-3, 6-1
6.	25 October, 2004	Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Marat Safin	6-2, 6-4, 6-3
7.	1 November, 2004	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Jiří Novák	5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2

Doubles (0)

Doubles Finalist (1)

• 2003 Buenos Aires w/Lucas Arnold (ARG) (lost to Mariano Hood & Sebastián Prieto (ARG))

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. Davis Cup matches are included in the statistics. This table is current through the Rome Masters in Italy, which ended on May 13, 2007.

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career win-loss
Australian Open	A	A	2R	QF	QF	QF	SF	4R	21-6
French Open	A	A	3R	2R	SF	4R	SF	4R	19-6
Wimbledon	A	A	F	4R	A	QF	3R	3R	17-5
U.S. Open	A	3R	1R	SF	2R	QF	2R	3R	15-7
Grand Slam Win-Loss1	0-0	2-1	9-4	13-4	10-3	15-4	13-4	10-4	72-24
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	2R	1R	A	4R	4R	4R	7-5
Miami Masters	1R	1R	1R	3R	A	3R	SF	3R	7-7
Monte Carlo Masters	A	A	3R	2R	QF	A	3R	2R	9-5
Rome Masters	A	A	2R	1R	F	1R	SF	A	10-5
Hamburg Masters	A	A	1R	SF	1R	1R	A	A	4-4
Canada Masters	A	A	QF	F	1R	2R	1R	3R	11-6
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	1R	QF	A	2R	2R	1R	5-5
Madrid Masters (Stuttgart)	A	A	3R	A	F	SF	SF		12-4
Paris Masters	A	A	2R	A	A	2R	A		1-2
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A	A	RR	A	W	SF		6-6
Total Titles	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	0	5
Year End Ranking	245	47	12	8	9	6	8		N/A

A = did not participate in the tournament.
1. The win total does not include walkovers.

External links

• Unofficial Fan Site
• ATP Tour profile for David Nalbandian
• Nalbandian Recent Match Results
• Nalbandian World Ranking History
• Match history at Yahoo

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