David Nalbandian

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**David Nalbandián**

Country	Argentina
Residence	Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina
Date of birth	January 1, 1982 (1982-01-01) (age 25)
Place of birth	Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) ^[1]
Weight	79 kg (174 lb)
Turned Pro	2000
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$8,401,559
Singles
Career record:	248 - 125
Career titles:	7
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:	30 - 39
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	No. 116 (July 21, 2003)
Infobox last updated on: November 6, 2007.

David Nalbandián (born January 1, 1982), is a professional tennis player from Argentina of Armenian descent, who has career wins over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. As of November 19, 2007 he is the world's No. 9 male tennis player. Nalbandián has won seven ATP titles. ^[1]

Nalbandian began playing tennis at age five when his grandfather built a cement court in his backyard. 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.

Nalbandian at the 2006 US Open.

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 has seen 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.

Nalbandian's season changed when he won the 2007 Madrid Masters. He won the tournament by defeating Rafael Nadal, Novak Đoković, and Federer in consecutive rounds, becoming the third player after Boris Becker and Đoković to defeat the world's top three players in a single tournament. He defeated Nadal, 6-1, 6-2, in the quarterfinals. 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 Canas in the tournament before losing to top-seeded Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the semifinals. 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 played at the 2007 Paris Masters and again defeated Federer in the third round 6-4, 7-6 (7-3). He then beat David Ferrer in the quarterfinals in a closely fought match, winning 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2. After beating Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals, Nalbandian won his second straight ATP Masters Series title over Nadal, 6-4 6-0, thus, becoming the first player to win Madrid and Paris Masters back-to-back since former World No. 1 Safin in 2004. This win allowed Nalbandian to move back into the top ten at No. 9.

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 serve is not one of his strengths, however it is reliable, accurate and efficient.

David Nalbandian is sponsored by Yonex. His racquet of choice is the Yonex RDS 001, and also wears both Yonex clothing and shoes.
Nalbandian keeps a good relationship with all Argentine players, especially Agustín Calleri.
Nalbandian is a fan of the Club Atlético River Plate football team and has his own rally team called Tango Rally with Marcos Ligato as the main driver.
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 Đoković. Đoković and Nalbandian, however, are the only ones to do this in succession. (Becker did not beat all three of these players in three straight matches.)
Nalbandian is the third man to beat both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal since they assumed the #1 and #2 positions; the other two men being Tomáš Berdych and Đoković.

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

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)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2007	Madrid	Roger Federer	1-6, 6-3, 6-3
2007	Paris	Rafael Nadal	6-4, 6-0

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

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (1)
ATP Masters Series (2)
ATP Tour (4)

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

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	8 April 2002	Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Jarkko Nieminen	6-4, 7-6(5)
2.	21 October 2002	Davidoff Swiss Indoors, Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Fernando González	6-4, 6-3, 6-2
3.	1 May 2005	BMW Open, Munich, Germany	Clay	Andrei Pavel	6-4, 6-1
4.	20 November 2005	Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	6-7(4), 6-7(11), 6-2, 6-1, 7-6(3)
5.	7 May 2006	Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Nikolay Davydenko	6-3, 6-4
6.	21 October 2007	Madrid Masters, Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	1-6, 6-3, 6-3
7.	4 November 2007	Paris Masters, Paris, France	Hard (i)	Rafael Nadal	6-4, 6-0

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

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

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 Paris Masters in France, which ended on November 4, 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	A	A	3R	A	F	SF	SF	W	18-4
Paris Masters	A	A	2R	A	A	2R	A	W	7-2
Tennis Masters Cup	A	A	A	RR	A	W	SF	A	6-6
Total Titles	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	2	7
Year End Ranking	245	47	12	8	9	6	8	9	N/A