KNOCKED OUT

David Nalbandian has been knocked out from the opening round of the ongoing Sony Open. He has been defeated by Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the first round. Nieminen won the match in three sets by 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. In the second round, Nieminen’s opponent will be Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

In the match against Nalbandian, Nieminen made a comeback from the verge of defeat. He had lost the opening set and he had dropped his first couple of serves in the second set as well. He was clearly struggling at 0-3 in the second set. All Nalbandian needed was three serve holds and he would have been through. But, that didn’t happen. From that stage, Nieminen fought back in a remarkable manner and eventually managed to get better of Nalbandian.

This was an absolute cracker of a contest. It went on for 109 minutes and the spectators would have enjoyed each and every second of those 109 minutes.

This was Nieminen’s fifth victory over Nalbandian. These two players have played against each other 13 times so far.

Nalbandian hit more winners than his opponent in the match. He hit 15, while, Nieminen hit 14. Also, Nalbandian committed lesser unforced errors (33) as compared to Nieminen (27).  Despite that, the Argentinean superstar had to suffer defeat.

Nalbandian didn’t start that well in the first set. He lost his very first service game in the match to get trailed by 0-1. Nieminen held his serve in the next game which gave him a 2-0 lead.

After the first couple of games, Nalbandian’s performance got better. All of a sudden, he started timing his shots to perfection and Nieminen was looking clueless. The Finnish player lost 9 games in a row and Nalbandian was not too far away from victory.

But, the momentum changed again. Nieminen broke in the 4^th game of the second set and that breakthrough put him on the right track. He didn’t look back from there. By winning 6 out of the next 7 games, he won the second set by 6-4.

In the decider, Nieminen got an early breakthrough and he kept that lead till the end to pull off a great victory.

TSONGA WINS OPEN 13

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has won Open 13 by defeating Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the final match. Tsonga defeated Berdych by 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4. This was the 10^th ATP title won by Tsonga in his career.

This was Tsonga’s second victory over Berdych in six meetings. Berdych was seeded higher than Tsonga in this tournament. The Czech player was given top seed, while, Tsonga was the third seeded player. Read more »

★ Rafael Nadal vs David Nalbandian Final Brasil Open 2013 Full Highlights + Full Ceremony

Nalbandian Online video Rating: 5 / 5

ARGENTINA FALL

David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Monaco, has been defeated by Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia in the first round of the Australian Open 2013. Kuznetsov won the match in the straight sets by 7-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Monaco became the first seeded player to be defeated in the first round. All the seeded players except him moved easily into the second round.

Monaco was not 100% fit before the match. During the match, he took quite a few injury timeouts to have treatment, but, even after that, his pain didn’t get reduced and he kept struggling in the last couple of sets.

Monaco had withdrawn his name from the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament last week because of a hand injury. His participation in the Australian Open was in doubt because of that injury. The Argentinean didn’t manage to regain complete fitness before the Australian Open, but, he decided to take part in the tournament.

From the beginning of the second set, it was evident that Monaco was struggling, but, he didn’t retire. He kept playing with the pain till the end of the match. The crowd out there applauded for Monaco’s spirit of not giving up till the end.

In the first set, Monaco was not feeling that much pain and he played quite well. But, after the first set, his pain increased and his performance deteriorated. He was completely outplayed in the last couple of sets.

Kuznetsov hit some powerful shots and took the match away from Monaco. The Russian smashed a total of 6 aces in the match.

In the post match interview, Monaco said, “I hadn’t expected myself to be beaten in the opening round. It’s disappointing. Had I been 100% fit, the scenario could have been different.”

When asked if his injury is a severe one, Monaco said, “No, I don’t think it’s a major injury.  I am sure I will get fit within next two weeks.”

David Nalbandian futbol Skills

Nalbandian Video Ranking: 5 / 5

MONACO WITHDRAWS

David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Monaco, has withdrawn his name from the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament. The director of the tournament, Colin Stubbs, gave this information to the reporters on Tuesday. The reason of Monaco’s withdrawal from the tournament is hand injury. On Monaco’s place, Paul-Henri Mathieu of France will participate in the tournament.

Announcing the withdrawal of Monaco from the tournament, Stubbs said, “Juan’s manager called me in the morning and told me that Juan would not be able to take part in the tournament because his hand is injured.”

“He didn’t tell me how severe Juan’s injury is. He just told me that Juan had been advised by his physio to have a rest of few days and with Australian Open around the corner, he doesn’t want to take any risk. So, he has decided not to participate in the tournament.”

Monaco has been given 11^th seed in the Australian Open which is one higher than his world rankings. This is because world no. 4, Rafael Nadal, is not going to participate in the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, the Japan Open Champion Kei Nishikori has  said that he is not certain whether he would be able to take part in the Kooyong Classic tournament or not. Nishikori had injured his knee while playing in the Brisbane International tennis tournament and because of that, he had to withdraw from the semi final match.

Nishikori’s opening match at Kooyong is against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic on Wednesday. When Nishikori was asked if he has recovered from his knee injury, he said, “I am not sure about it. I haven’t picked up the racket since the last few days. I will attend a training session tomorrow and if I will not have any difficulty while training, I will participate in the tournament. But, if I will feel the pain, I might withdraw from the tournament.”