David Nalbandian’s compatriot, Juan Monaco, has withdrawn his name from the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament.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 11th 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.”
Roger Federer has said that Juan Martin Del Potro is capable of becoming the no.1 player in the world. Federer gave this statement after being defeated by Del Potro in his first exhibition match on the tour of South America. Federer lost the match by 6-3, 3-6, 4-6. This was the 18th match between these two players and Del Potro has won 5 of them.
This was Del Potro’s third consecutive victory over Federer. Before this, Del Potro had defeated Federer in Swiss Indoors Basel final and ATP World Tour Finals this year.
Federer looked quite impressed with the recent form of Del Potro. In the post match interview, he said, “Del Potro is a fantastic player. He is one of the best in the business and he has the ability to reach the top of the rankings. He is no. 7 at the moment, but, if he works hard and maintains consistency, he will win many more titles.”
Del Potro has defeated Federer in some big matches. The Argentinean had won his first Grand Slam title by defeating Federer in the final of the US Open in 2009. That was a marathon final in which Federer was defeated by 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-7(4), 2-6. But, in the following year, Del Potro injured his wrist because of which he had to miss a lot of matches in the 2010 season and thus, he got down in the world rankings.
While talking to the reporters, Federer also said that he would like to be involved in tennis even after his retirement, most probably as a coach. Federer said, “I have a lot of interest in coaching and most probably I would like to be a coach after retirement.”
Federer will play another exhibition match against Del Potro and then, he will go to Colombia to play against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Saturday.
David Nalbandian has said that he wants to put up a better performance in the upcoming Davis Cup match against Germany. The last season hadn’t been that good for Nalbandian. He won a few matches, but, he was clearly not at his best at any point of time in the season.
He also had quite a few controversies in the season which made it even worse for him. He was criticized for his behaviour with the match officials in a few tournaments. However, the last season has finished now and Nalbandian doesn’t want to think too much about his performance in the last season. He is looking forward to the next season. He wants to make a big contribution for his country in the Davis cup clash against a relatively stronger German side.
Talking to the reporters in a press conference, Nalbandian said, “The match against Germany is going to be very important for us. Germany is undoubtedly a very strong side and they have got some seriously talented players, but, we will have to back ourselves to defeat them. Winning that match is necessary for us.”
“I think we also have got a pretty experienced squad and if we manage to play up to our capabilities, we would certainly make them work hard for points.”
“Preparation for such an important clash is important. I will start my pre season training somewhere around 10th of December, then, I would play in a few warm up tournaments before the Davis cup match against Germany.”
When asked about his goals for the upcoming season, Nalbandian said, “The primary goal is to make my way into the top 50 players in the world. Obviously, I will have to perform well in a few tournaments for that and hopefully, I will be able to do it.”
David Nalbandian’s countryman, Carlos Berlocq, has been defeated by Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters 2012. Istomin won the match by 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. He took almost two hours in winning the contest. With this victory, Istomin has reached the pre quarter finals.
In the first set, Berlocq played superbly, but, in the next two sets, he looked a different player altogether. He was just thrashed by Istomin in the second and the third set.
In the post match interview, Berlocq admitted that he gave too many opportunities to Istomin in the last two sets. The Argentinean player said, “My performance gradually deteriorated as the match went on. Winning just 3 games in the last two sets was not enough at all. I should have done better than that. But, you should also give credit to Istomin. Even after losing the first set, he kept his composure and made a remarkable comeback.”
Berlocq started the match on a good note. He got a breakthrough in the third game of the first set and he enhanced the lead by serving out the fourth game. He didn’t lose his serve in the rest of the games and won the first set by 6-4.
After losing the first set, Istomin came into the second set with all guns blazing. He won the first three games consecutively and took a profound lead of 3-0. The next 4 games went with the serve and at the end of the seventh game; the scorecard was saying 5-2 in the favour of Istomin. Istomin broke Berlocq’s service in the eighth game and won the second set by 6-2.
In the final set, Istomin was in a destructive mood. Berlocq held his service in the opening game, but, after that, it was all about Istomin. The Uzbek player won the next six games in a row and won the match.
In the third round, Istomin will play against Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.
David Nalbandian has been defeated in the very first round of the Men’s tennis singles tournament of London Olympics by Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Nalbandian has been defeated in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-4. Tipsarevic showed a fine display of power tennis and fired 16 aces in the match. Nalbandian struggled throughout the match and never looked in control.
Tipsarevic broke the service of Nalbandian in the fourth game of the first set and took a lead of 3-1 in the first set. But, Nalbandian made a comeback and broke Tipsarevic’s service in the fifth game. But, the Serbian player again broke Nalbandian’s service in the next game and the scorecard was showing 4-2. Thereafter, Tipsarevic held his service in the seventh and the ninth game and won the first set by 6-3. In the second set, both the players held their service in the first two games, but, Nalbandian again gave Tipsarevic a breakthrough in the third game of the second set. Tipsarevic held his service in the next game to make the lead 3-1. He kept that lead till the end and won the match. Tipsarevic played some brilliant backhand shots in the match.
Tipsarevic took the services of his trainer during the second set when the score was 3-2. After getting some help from the trainer, Tipsarevic came back and wrapped up the match quickly. Nalbandian looked pretty disappointed after losing the match. He said that he had got some opportunities in the match, but, he was not able to grab those opportunities. He also praised the young Serbian player for his fantastic power game. As per Nalbandian, Tipsarevic served brilliantly in the match. On the other hand, Tipsarevic said that Nalbandian is an experienced player and he gave him a tough fight in the match. As per Tipsarevic, he would like to continue the same kind of performance in the upcoming matches as well.
The world of tennis has seen many ‘super brats’, with former American player John McEnroe being one of the foremost of the brats to have graced the tennis court. Age, however, had mellowed the fiery American down somewhat but if he wanted to leave a legacy of his fiery temper on court, he has been highly successful with Argentine tennis player David Nalbandian, who cites the former 7 time Grand Slam winner as one of his boyhood idols, is well on his way to becoming the latest ‘super brat’ at Wimbledon.
Having been ejected from the Queen’s barely 10 days before the first ball was hit at the All England Club for kicking out at an advertising board and causing hurt to a line judge, people expected the 30 year old former world number three to be at his best behavior against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, especially with the police still continuing the investigations over the circumstances that led to his clash with the line judge. Read more »
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January 17, 2013 7:17 am | 
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