David Nalbandian – Wimbledon Men’s Tennis PlayerArgentinian David Nalbandian returns the ball to Canadian Frank Dancevic during the 2nd round at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, in south London, 28 June 2007.

David Nalbandian’s form is looking much better going into the 2009 season. The current world number 7 had an early exit at Wimbledon 2008 after suffering a defeat by wild card Frank Dankevic. Although His amazing bounce back from an injury-riddled 2007 season was evidence enough that he is only just beginning a great grand slam career.

Nalbandian is the one of the top four players to achieve a semi final match or better in all four grand slam tournaments, amongst Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.

He has crushed the world number one and two consistently, and his triumph at the 2007 Paris Masters has got tennis fans rubbing their hands with glee. The dominance and might of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are finally being tested.

The 26 year old Argentine turned pro in 2000 and a year later he finished in the top 50 of the ATP rankings for the first time.

In 2002 he stunned the tennis world when he reached the final at the All England Club only to lose to Australian Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets, 6-1 6-3 6-2. He became the first man to reach a final on his debut, and what made his run even more pleasing was that Wimbledon was his first ever pro tournament on grass!

He has consistently made it to the final few rounds of the Grand Slams, and his record at the Tennis Masters Cup is even more impressive. He won the coveted title for the first time in 2005 when he thrashed Ivan Ljubicic, Guillermo Coria, Nikolay Davydenko and Roger Federer.

In doing so David Nalbandian, Wimbledon men’s tennis player, became the first player to lift the cup without previously winning a Grand Slam or Masters Series title.

At the 2006 Australian Open he joined Roger Federer as being the only active player to reach the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam events.

Early 2007 saw him battling with injuries, and his Grand Slam record took a bit of a turn for the worse.

He was defeated by Tommy Haas in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia took him out in the fourth round of the French Open and he only made it as far as the third round in both Wimbledon and the US Open where he fell to David Ferrer. For the first time since 2003 he fell out of the world’s top 20.

Then, he turned it on:

  • At the Madrid Masters he defeated Rafael Nadal (2), Novak Djokovic (3) and Roger Federer (1) in consecutive rounds. He had to contend with Federer again in the final but put paid to his Masters Series win with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory. He became only the third man to beat all three of the world’s top players in one event.
  • He claimed the Paris Masters title a couple of weeks later with a two-set victory over Rafael Nadal, 6-4 6-0. Earlier he had trounced the world number one, Roger Federer, yet again.

His ranking has soared to number 7, and if all goes according to plan he should be up in the top five in no time.