David Nalbandian

David Nalbandian

Country	Argentina
Residence	Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina
Date of birth	January 1, 1982 (1982-01-01) (age 29)
Place of birth	Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) [1]
Weight	79 kg (170 lb; 12.4 st)
Turned pro	2000
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$10,173,175
Singles
Career record	306–147
Career titles	11
Highest ranking	No. 3 (March 20, 2006)
Current ranking	No. 45 (August 9, 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	SF (2006)
French Open	SF (2004, 2006)
Wimbledon	F (2002)
US Open	SF (2003)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	W (2005)
Olympic Games	3R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	42–51
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 105 (October 5, 2009)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2003)
French Open	1R (2003)
Wimbledon	2R (2003)
Last updated on: July 12, 2010.

David Pablo Nalbandian (born January 1, 1982) is an Argentine professional tennis player, former World No. 3, currently ranked 45th in the world as of August 9, 2010. He was runner up in the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.

Career on the ATP

2000–2002

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 two ATP titles and reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt.

2003–2004

Nalbandian was not able to return to the Wimbledon Championship in 2003, as he was knocked out in the Round of 16 to hometown favourite Tim Henman. He did however make an impressive run at the U.S. Open, taking out both of the Wimbledon finalists #20 seed Mark Philippoussis, and the #2 seed Roger Federer along the way to a semifinal matchup with Andy Roddick. It was the second time in less than a month that he would meet Roddick in high stakes match, having lost to him in the final of Rogers Cup a few weeks earlier, Nalbandian started strongly as he took a two sets to love lead, and held a match point in the third set tiebreak. There was a little bit of controversy during the match when a fan yelled "out" at 7–7 in the tiebreak, causing Nalbandian to mishit his following shot when he thought the linesman was the one who called it. Roddick took the point and eventually prevailed in the tiebreak.^[2] Ultimately, he was not able to finish the match and eventually lost 6–7(4), 3–6, 7–6(7), 6–1, 6–3, l affine championship. He finished 2003 ranked #8 in the world.

In 2004, Nalbandian made his best effort at the French Open reaching the semi-finals, again he lost to the eventual champion Gastón Gaudio. Although he did not win any titles in 2004, he did finish runner-up at both the Rome Masters and the Madrid Masters, losing to Carlos Moyá and Marat Safin, respectively. He broke into the top 5 for the first time in his career in July and finished 2004 ranked as the world #9 player.

2005

In 2005, Nalbandian advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open, more importantly he 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. Nalbandian also became the first player to win the cup without previously attaining a Grand Slam or Masters Series title.

2006

In January 2006, Nalbandian beat Fabrice Santoro of France 7–5, 6–0, 6–0, in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, becoming only the second active player (as of February 2006, 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 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 only three 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 only time in his career that he reached two Grand Slam semi-finals in one calendar year. He played Roger Federer and started strongly, winning 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, due to stomach injury. At Wimbledon, Nalbandian was beaten in the third round, where he lost to Fernando Verdasco in straight sets. 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 won against Mark Philippoussis 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 to give Argentina a 1–0 lead. Argentina went on to win 5–0 to reach the Davis Cup final.

Later in the year Nalbandian reached semi-finals at Masters Series Madrid and Masters Cup, where he lost to Roger Federer and James Blake respectively.

Despite winning both of his single rubbers in the Davis Cup final against Marat Safin and Nikolay Davydenko, Nalbandian could not stop the Russian Davis Cup team. Argentina went on to lose 3–2.

2007

2007 saw Nalbandian 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 suffered various abdominal injuries, a back injury and a leg injury during the year which is the reason for his form lapse.

He fell to No. 26 in the world until his season changed after winning the 2007 Madrid Masters. He won the tournament by defeating #2 seed Rafael Nadal, #3 seed Novak Djoković, and #1 seed Roger Federer in consecutive rounds, becoming the third player after Boris Becker and Djoković to defeat the world's top three players in a single tournament. He defeated Nadal, 6–1, 6–2, in the quarter-finals. His good form carried him to his second top three win of the tournament, defeating Djoković in the semifinals. He then stunned Federer in the final, winning 1–6, 6–3, 6–3. He also reached the doubles semifinals with Guillermo Cañas in the tournament before losing to top-seeded Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the semi-finals. After the tournament, his singles ranking moved up from No. 25 on the tour to No. 18, losing in the first round of his next tournament.

Nalbandian would later play at the 2007 Paris Masters and again defeated Federer in the third round 6–4, 7–6(3). He then beat David Ferrer in the quarter-finals in a closely fought match, winning 7–6(3), 6–7(3), 6–2. After beating Richard Gasquet 6–2, 6–4 in the semifinals, Nalbandian won his second straight ATP Masters Series title over Rafael Nadal, winning 6–4, 6–0, thus, becoming the first player to win the Madrid and Paris Masters back-to-back since former world#1, Marat Safin in 2004. This win allowed Nalbandian to move back into the world's top 10 at #9.

2008

David Nalbandian attempting to defend his title at the 2008 BNP Paribas Masters

Nalbandian began his 2008 season back in the top ten. However, at the Australian Open, he failed to make the quarter-finals of the tournament, suffering a 6–1, 6–2, 6–3, loss to the No. 22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round. On February 24, 2008 Nalbandian won the Copa Telmex on home soil in Buenos Aires, beating fellow compatriot José Acasuso 3–6, 7–6(5), 6–4, in the final. With that win he moved to world number 8 on the ATP rankings. The following week, He arrived at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Mexico and cruised all the way to the finals, along the way defeating Boris Pašanski, Santiago Ventura, Potito Starace, and Luis Horna, dispatching them all in straight sets, but then lost in the final to Spaniard Nicolás Almagro, 1–6, 6–7(1).

He entered his first ATP Masters Series tournament of the year at the 2008 Pacific Life Open, and received a "bye" in the first round because of his seventh seeding. In the second round, he defeated Ernests Gulbis 6–4, 4–6, 7–6(4), and then came back to beat Radek Štěpánek, 7–6(1), 0–6, 7–6(6). In the fourth round, he avenged his defeat by beating Juan Carlos Ferrero, whom he lost earlier in the year at the Australian Open, winning 6–2, 6–2. He lost however, in the quarter-finals against Mardy Fish, 3–6, 7–6(5), 6–7(4), in a very close match. He then lost at the Monte Carlo Masters to eventual finalist Roger Federer 7–5, 2–6, 2–6. In Barcelona, he was the third seed, but was eliminated by Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. At the 2008 Rome Masters, he fell in his opening match to Nicolás Almagro, losing 4–6, 5–7.

At the French Open, Nalbandian suffered a shock loss in the second round to Frenchman Jérémy Chardy. After being two sets up and seemingly in control, he lost the next three to hand Chardy the win, losing 3–6, 4–6, 6–2, 6–1, 6–2. He would also suffer early exits from both Wimbledon and the US Open, losing in the second round and third round, respectively. His indoor season however, was a success as he won his 9th career title at the 2008 Stockholm Open, defeating Robin Söderling 6–2, 5–7, 6–3, in the finals. He was defending champion at the Madrid Masters, but was quickly eliminated by fellow Argentine Juan Martín del Potro in the third round. He then entered both the Davidoff Swiss Indoors and the BNP Paribas Masters, where he was once again the defending champion. He did not win any of these 2 tournaments but found himself in the finals of both. To end the year, he participated in the 2008 Davis Cup and was up on an opening match against David Ferrer. Despite a victory, he ended up on the losing team against Spain in the Davis Cup finals in Argentina (The Argentine team lost 1–3). He then made numerous offensive comments in the press against Spain, the Spanish tennis team and its top star Rafael Nadal. It was rumoured^[3] that he and fellow friend Agustín Calleri where involved in a fight after their doubles rubber was lost. Nalbandian strenuously denied this.^[4] Nevertheless, he was fined $10,000 for leaving the stadium after his and Calleri's defeat in doubles to the Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano López and his refusal to appear at a subsequent press conference to comment on the Argentine team's setback.

2009

Nalbandian started his 2009 tour by winning his tenth career ATP title at the Medibank International in Sydney, Australia after defeating Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6–3, 6–7(9), 6–2 in the final. At the Australian Open, he defeated Marc Gicquel in the first round, 6–1, 4–6, 6–2, 6–3, before being upset by unseeded Taiwanese player Lu Yen-Hsun 4–6, 7–5, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, in the second round.

At the 2009 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Nalbandian lost to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, 6–3, 6–7(5), 0–6 in the fourth round for the first time, failing to convert on five match points in the second set.

In May, he announced that he would have to undergo a hip surgery, resulting in not being able to compete in the remaining Grand Slams and the Davis Cup. In August, he announced that he would return to practice and eventually to competitive tennis at the Australian Open in January. A few days before the beginning of the tournament, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to an abdominal injury.

2010

Because of injuries in the early part of the 2010 season, he finally made a return, beginning at the 2010 Copa Telmex, his hometown tournament. He beat Potito Starace in the first round 6–2, 7–6(2) which took over a period of two days due to a rain delay. In round two, he beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6–7(5), 6–4, 7–6(7). However, he pulled out of his quarterfinals match against fifth seed, Albert Montañés due to a right leg injury. He made a return to tennis by playing doubles for Argentine in Davis Cup against Sweden in Stockholm, which he won in straight sets. He also played the deciding single rubber defeating Vinciguerra 7–5, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 and thus helped Argentina reach the quarterfinals.

Playing in his first Masters Series event since Monte Carlo last year, he appeared at the first Master Series event for the season, at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. There, he won his first round match against Stefan Koubek 6–2, 7–6(2). In his next round match, he played 22nd seed Jürgen Melzer but lost 4–6, 1–6.

He then entered the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, as a wildcard entrant. He beat Łukasz Kubot 6–3, 6–2 and no.30 seed Viktor Troicki 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 before falling to the No. 4 seed Rafael Nadal in three sets, 6–7, 6–2, 6–2.

Nalbandian entered the 2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco, ranked 151 in the world, beating Andreas Beck in straight sets before coming through 3–6, 6–4, 7–6(5) against world number 13 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the second round. Nalbandian beat Tommy Robredo before losing in the quarterfinals to the second-ranked Novak Đoković 6–2, 6–3.

Nalbandian withdrew from the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia with a right leg injury. The injury persisted, and Nalbandian withdrew from both the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open and 2010 Roland Garros tournament. He also withdrew from the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.

In July, Nalbandian played two single matches for Argentina against Russia in Davis Cup at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. He defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 in the first rubber, and Mikhail Youzhny 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the fifth and final rubber, giving Argentina a victory of 3-2 to qualify his country to the semifinals of the cup.

He made his return in the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic where he won the title, his first since 2009 Medibank International Sydney after wins over Rajeev Ram 6-4 6-0, Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3 6-1, Marco Chiudinelli 6-1 6-0, Gilles Simon 3-6 6-2 6-3 and Marin Cilic 6-2 6-2. He defeated Marcos Baghdatis in the finals 6-2, 7-6, guaranteeing a jump in the rankings up to the vicinity of World No.45.^[5]

Playing style

Nalbandian is an all-court player and is known as one of the cleanest ball strikers in the sport.^[6] He uses powerfully struck, sharply accurate groundstrokes which have very low error-percentage. His signature play is the wide drive that swings out of court on both sides, low and spinning. He is able to take high balls on the backhand and forehand side and return them with acute angles and low trajectories and uses these skills with great tactical intelligence.^[7] Given his adept use of angle, depth, and pace, his opponents often have difficulty breaking down one particular side. His ground game is complemented by his anticipation, speed and ability to end points at the net. Nalbandian's trademark shot is his double-handed backhand down-the-line, which he often uses to set up a point, by either hitting a clean winner or forcing a weak return from the opponent. Nalbandian is also known to be one of the game's best returners. He is consistently able to knock balls back deep on the baseline time and time again to effectively set up the point or rip return winners off second serves, but he also has the ability to block it back deep when returning a more effective serve. He is also known to use a "chip-and-charge" technique against the opponents serves to surprise them.^[8]

Distinctions

• He is one of only four active players to have achieved the semi-finals or better at all four Grand Slams, along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic.
• Nalbandian became the third man to beat the world's top three players in the same tournament. The other two men are Boris Becker and Novak Djokovic.
• Nalbandian is one of the twelve men to beat both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal since they assumed the #1 and #2 positions respectively; the other eleven men being Tomáš Berdych, Juan Martín del Potro, Novak Djokovic, Fernando González, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, James Blake, Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko and Robin Söderling. He managed to do this feat in two consecutive Masters Series events in Madrid and Paris.
• Nalbandian is one of the seven men to beat Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic since they assumed #1, #2 and #3 positions respectively; the others being Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko,Robin Söderling and Tomas Berdych.

Equipment

• David Nalbandian is sponsored by Yonex. His racquet of choice is the Yonex RDiS 100 Midplus, and also wears both Yonex clothing and shoes.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2002	Wimbledon	Grass	Lleyton Hewitt	6–1, 6–3, 6–2

Year-End Championships finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	2005	Shanghai	Hard	Roger Federer	6–7(4), 6–7(11), 6–2, 6–1, 7–6(3)

Masters Series finals

Singles: 6 (2–4)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2003	Canada (Montreal)	Hard	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–3
Runner-up	2004	Rome	Clay	Carlos Moyà	6–3, 6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	2004	Madrid	Hard (i)	Marat Safin	6–2, 6–4, 6–3
Winner	2007	Madrid	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	1–6, 6–3, 6–3
Winner	2007	Paris	Hard (i)	Rafael Nadal	6–4, 6–0
Runner-up	2008	Paris	Hard (i)	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	6–3, 4–6, 6–4

Career finals

Singles: 21 (11–10)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	October 1, 2001	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Félix Mantilla	7–6(2), 6–4
Winner	1.	April 8, 2002	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Jarkko Nieminen	6–4, 7–6(5)
Runner-up	2.	July 8, 2002	Wimbledon, London, UK	Grass	Lleyton Hewitt	6–1, 6–3, 6–2
Winner	2.	October 21, 2002	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Fernando González	6–4, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	3.	August 11, 2003	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–3
Runner-up	4.	October 27, 2003	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Guillermo Coria	walkover
Runner-up	5.	May 10, 2004	Rome, Italy	Clay	Carlos Moyà	6–3, 6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	6.	October 18, 2004	Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Marat Safin	6–2, 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	7.	October 25, 2004	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Jiří Novák	5–7, 6–3, 6–4, 1–6, 6–2
Winner	3.	May 1, 2005	Munich, Germany	Clay	Andrei Pavel	6–4, 6–1
Winner	4.	November 20, 2005	Year-End Championships, Shanghai, China	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	6–7(4), 6–7(11), 6–2, 6–1, 7–6(3)
Winner	5.	May 7, 2006	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Nikolay Davydenko	6–3, 6–4
Winner	6.	October 21, 2007	Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	1–6, 6–3, 6–3
Winner	7.	November 4, 2007	Paris, France	Hard (i)	Rafael Nadal	6–4, 6–0
Winner	8.	February 24, 2008	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	José Acasuso	3–6, 7–6(5), 6–4
Runner-up	8.	February 25, 2008	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Nicolás Almagro	6–1, 7–6(1)
Winner	9.	October 4, 2008	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Robin Söderling	6–2, 5–7, 6–3
Runner-up	9.	October 26, 2008	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	10.	November 2, 2008	Paris, France	Hard (i)	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
Winner	10.	January 17, 2009	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Jarkko Nieminen	6–3, 6–7(9), 6–2
Winner	11.	August 8, 2010	Washington, U.S.	Hard	Marcos Baghdatis	6–2, 7–6(4)

Exhibition Tournaments (7)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final	Draw
Winner	1.	January 17, 2004	AAMI Classic, Kooyong, Australia	Hard	Andre Agassi	6–2, 6–3	8
Winner	2.	December 11, 2005	Indoor Master Tennis – Córdoba, Argentina	Carpet (i)	Mariano Puerta	6–3, 6–4	4
Winner	3.	December 18, 2005	Copa Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina	Hard	Agustín Calleri	3–6, 6–2, 6–3	12
Winner	4.	December 11, 2006	Indoor Master Tennis – Córdoba, Argentina	Carpet (i)	Nicolás Massú	6–4, 6–3	12
Winner	5.	December 16, 2007	Copa Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina	Hard	Juan Mónaco	6–4, 7–5	8
Winner	6.	December 13, 2009	Copa Minero – San Juan, Argentina	Carpet (i)	Gastón Gaudio	6–2, 6–2	4
Winner	7.	December 20, 2009	Copa Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina	Hard	Marcos Baghdatis	6–4, 6–4	6

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Runner-ups (1)

• 2003
  • Buenos Aires with Lucas Arnold (lost to Mariano Hood & Sebastián Prieto)

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 2009 Rome Masters.

Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses. To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

References

External links

• Official website
• David Nalbandian at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• David Nalbandian at the International Tennis Federation
• David Nalbandian at Davis Cup
• News about David Nalbandian

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Manu Ginóbili and Carlos Tévez	Olimpia de Oro 2005	Succeeded by Germán Chiaraviglio

Association of Tennis Professionals Top ten male singles tennis players from the Americas as of November 29, 2010 1. Andy Roddick (8 ) 2. Mardy Fish (16 ) 3. Sam Querrey (18 ) 4. John Isner (19 ) 5. Juan Mónaco (26 ) 6. David Nalbandian (27 ) 7. Thomaz Bellucci (31 ) 8. Juan Ignacio Chela (39 ) 9. Pablo Cuevas (63 1) 10. Santiago Giraldo (64 1)

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten Argentine male singles tennis players as of November 29, 2010 1. Juan Mónaco (26 ) 2. David Nalbandian (27 ) 3. Juan Ignacio Chela (39 ) 4. Carlos Berlocq (66 3) 5. Eduardo Schwank (74 ) 6. Brian Dabul (86 2) 7. Leonardo Mayer (95 3) 8. Horacio Zeballos (110 1) 9. Máximo González (142 1) 10. Diego Junqueira (148 38)