Tennis player david nalbandian biography

Biography of David Nalbandian

David Nalbandian is an Argentine tennis player of Armenian descent. He began his professional career in 2000, but started playing tennis at the age of 5. Nalbandian represented Argentina in various youth team tournaments in the 14, 16, and 18 age groups. In 1996, he became the winner of the Youth Team World Championship as part of the Argentine team. He also achieved significant success in junior tournaments, winning the Junior US Open in 1998 (defeating Roger Federer) in singles and the Junior Wimbledon in 1999 in doubles (with Guillermo Coria). He was also a finalist in the Junior Roland Garros in 1999 (losing to Guillermo Coria) in singles.

In 2002, at the age of 20, Nalbandian reached the final of Wimbledon, where he lost to Australian player Lleyton Hewitt. This achievement propelled him into the top 50 tennis players in the ATP rankings, and he was declared "Athlete of the Year" in Argentina. One of Nalbandian's greatest career achievements came in the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. He qualified for the tournament due to the withdrawals of other higher-ranked players. In the tournament, Nalbandian reached the semifinals, defeating Russian player Nikolay Davydenko, and then faced Swiss player Roger Federer in the final. After an intense match lasting nearly 5 hours, Nalbandian managed to defeat Federer with a score of 6-7, 6-7, 6-1, 6-2, 7-6. Following this victory, Nalbandian reached a career-high ranking of third in the world.

In 2007, Nalbandian experienced a relatively unsuccessful year, dropping out of the top 10 rankings. However, he ended the season on a high note by winning back-to-back Masters tournaments in Madrid and Paris, defeating the world's top-ranked players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, respectively. Nalbandian, Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal are the only active players to have reached at least the semifinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments in singles. From 2003 to 2007, Nalbandian finished the year in the top 10 of the world rankings for five consecutive years: 2003 - 8, 2004 - 9, 2005 - 6, 2006 - 8, 2007 - 9.

In 2008, Nalbandian was awarded an Armenian passport by the Armenian ambassador to Argentina in Buenos Aires. He is also a fan of the football club "River Plate."