Well, it is a big surprise, no doubt about it. The former Wimbledon finalist (in 2002) was up against Canadian Frank Dancevic. The Canadian had had some good moments last summer when he won the Indianapolis event defeating Andy Roddick and then a few weeks later as he defeated a few top players in the Montreal Masters Cup Series event.
But
David Nalbandian had been very consistent in grand slams over the years and rarely lost to unknown players. But how unknown was Dancevic? Well consider that right now he is barely among the top 100 players in the world (sitting at #98), had won only 2 matches in his career in grand slams (despite being 23 years old) and as clearly out of shape after missing a few months because of injuries.
But the match went by very fast. With left-handed Dancevic serving great and hitting 16 aces to no double faults,
David Nalbandian had much trouble getting anything going and wasn't able to put much pressure on the Canadian's serve, not winning event 40% of points on the 2nd serve.
The steady Dancevic was even more impressive is how he made
David Nalbandian play for every point, making only 5 unforced errors in the whole match, a truly impressive statistic.
# posted by Pierre : 7:41 PM
