David Nalbandian

He also won the Tennis Masters Cup, becoming only the second Argentine tennis player in history (after Guillermo Vilas in 1974) to win the year-end tournament.

Having replaced Andy Roddick, he won two of his three group matches (to Federer, Ivan Ljubičić, and Guillermo Coria).

In the semifinals, he defeated Russian Nikolay Davydenko, and in the final, he beat World No. 1 Roger Federer in a fifth-set tiebreak after coming from two sets down, with Federer succumbing to a right ankle injury after laboring out the first two sets in tiebreaks.

Nalbandian became the first player to win the cup without previously attaining a Grand Slam or Masters Series title.

David Pablo Nalbandian (born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine former professional tennis player.

In May, he won the Estoril Open Tournament in Portugal for the second time, being one of only three men to achieve this accomplishment (Carlos Costa, 1992 and 1994; and Thomas Muster, 1995 and 1996).

One month later, Nalbandian reached his second French Open semifinal.

It was the only time in his career that he reached two Grand Slam semifinals in one calendar year.

He played Federer and started strongly, winning the first set 6–3 and going 3–0 up in the second set.

At 5–2 down in the third set, Nalbandian decided to retire from the match due to stomach injury.

At Wimbledon, Nalbandian was beaten in the third round, where he lost to Fernando Verdasco in straight sets.

At the US Open, Nalbandian was beaten in the second round by Marat Safin.

Nalbandian then competed in the Davis Cup semifinal tie against Australia.

David easily won against Mark Philippoussis, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3, to give Argentina a 1–0 lead.

Argentina went on to win 5–0 to reach the Davis Cup final.

Later in the year, Nalbandian reached semifinals at the Masters Series Madrid and the Masters Cup, where he lost to Roger Federer and James Blake, respectively.

Despite winning both of his singles rubbers in the Davis Cup final against Safin and Nikolay Davydenko, Nalbandian could not stop the Russian Davis Cup team.

As a junior, Nalbandian reached as high as No. 3 in the world in December 1998 (and No. 5 in doubles in 2000), soon after winning the US Open boys' singles final over fellow junior Roger Federer.

He turned professional in 2000.

In 2001, he finished in the ATP top 50 for the first time.

Nalbandian was runner-up in the singles event at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships.

He finished 2002 as the No. 1 Argentine and South American for the first time in his career, winning two ATP titles and reaching the Wimbledon final, where he beat David Sánchez, Paul-Henri Mathieu, George Bastl, Wayne Arthurs, Nicolás Lapentti and Xavier Malisse before losing to Lleyton Hewitt.

Nalbandian did not reach another major final in 2003.

At Wimbledon he lost to Tim Henman, following a stomach injury during his previous match against Karol Kucera.

In 2004, Nalbandian achieved his best result at the French Open reaching the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Gastón Gaudio.

Although he did not win any titles in 2004, he did finish runner-up at both the Rome Masters and the Madrid Masters,by Carlos Moyá and Marat Safin respectively.

He broke into the top 5 for the first time in his career in August and finished 2004 ranked as the World No. 9 player.

During his career, he won 11 singles titles, including the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005 and two Masters 1000 tournaments.

Nalbandian is the only Argentine man in history to reach the semifinals or better at all four majors and to reach the Wimbledon final.

In 2005, Nalbandian advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open.

At Wimbledon, Nalbandian came from two sets down to defeat Andy Murray in the third round, in what was Murray's first Major tournament.

, he remains the only player to ever defeat Murray from two sets down.

He reached his highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006, during a career that stretched from 2000 to 2013.

He was a member of the Argentinian Davis Cup team who reached the finals of the World Group in 2006, 2008 and 2011.

Nalbandian played right-handed with a two-handed backhand, which was known for being a devastating shot.

Since his retirement, Nalbandian has taken up the sport of rally racing and has competed in Rally Argentina.

Of Armenian and Italian descent, David Nalbandian was born in the small city of Unquillo in Córdoba Province, Argentina.

He became a professional tennis player at the age of 18.

In January 2006, Nalbandian beat Fabrice Santoro of France, 7–5, 6–0, 6–0, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, becoming, at the time, only the second active player (along with Roger Federer) to have reached the semifinals of each Grand Slam tournament.

He lost in the semifinals to Marcos Baghdatis in a hard-fought five-set match, despite holding a two-set-to-love advantage and four games to two in the final set.