David Nalbandian (born January 1, 1982, Unquillo, Córdoba, Argentina) is a professional tennis player from Argentina. As of October, 2007, he is the World's No. 18 male tennis player. ^{http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/rankings/entrysystem}

Nalbandian began playing tennis at age five when his Armenian 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.



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 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. He won the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid, defeating Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer in consecutive rounds. 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 Tomáš 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 stunned Roger Federer in the final, winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. With this feat, 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; interestingly enough, Novak Đoković reached this feat and entered the top three so when Nalbandian beat Đoković, Đoković was one of the players who was in the top three. Đoković and Nalbandian, however, are the only ones to do this in sucession. (Becker did not beat all three of these players in three straight matches.)

It also made Nalbandian the first 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.

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 moved up from 25. on the tour, to 18.

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 weakness is his serve and while Nalbandian has proven his mental fortitude in countless matches (during the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup final 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.

*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.

*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 Madrid Masters in Spain, which ended on October 21, 2007.

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

* Unofficial Fan Site * * Nalbandian Recent Match Results * Nalbandian World Ranking History *Match history at Yahoo