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David Nalbandian - Source: Reuters -
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The 2010 Heineken Open has confirmed top-20 player and former
world number three David Nalbandian of Argentina as one of its key
signings.
The 27-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina has a current world
ranking of 20 and with ten ATP singles titles and ten finals to his
credit, he has been in the top echelon of men's tennis over the
past eight years.
He has been sidelined since May after having hip surgery and is
somewhat of a surprise signing seeing as he is the defending
champion for the Sydney tournament which runs at the same time.
He reached his career high of No3 in March 2006 after a
semifinal appearance at the Australian Open and also at the Miami
Masters.
Despite having his 2009 interrupted with injury Nalbandian still
managed to claim the title in Sydney with successive victories over
Lleyton Hewitt, Richard Gasquet and Jarkko Nieminen.
He also made the semifinals at Buenos Aires and the quarter-finals at Barcelona as well as the fourth round at Indian Wells and maintained his top-20 ranking.
One of his most notable results was in 2002, when in his first ever professional tournament on grass Nalbandian shocked the tennis world with a run to the final of Wimbledon before succumbing to Hewitt in the final.
Nalbandian is known for his superb consistency, especially in Grand Slams having reached the quarter-finals or better of ten Grand Slams.
In 2005, Nalbandian advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, but more importantly he 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 entered the tournament as a replacement for American Andy Roddick, Nalbandian won two of his three group matches and in the semifinals he defeated Russian Nikolay Davydenko before inflicting a rare defeat on world No1 Roger Federer in a fifth set tiebreak.
Nalbandian is one of the few active players who has a winning
head-to-head record against both Rafael Nadal and Federer.
"Nalbandian is a quality player who has something special in his
game as witnessed by his Grand Slam record of having reached a
final and several semifinals," says Heineken Open tournament
director, Richard Palmer.
"He's the sort of player who has the ability to really challenge
for the Heineken Open title and get back into the top 10."
