Nalbandian defeats Nadal to win Paris
Nalby seems to be in the best form of his life. He handed Nadal a bagel in the second set. Unlike in Madrid, Nadal didn’t play bad here. Nalbandian just dismantled Nadal’s game. Are we looking at the next number-1?
This is Nadal’s first loss in Paris.
Nalbandian is now at 9 in the rankings. If one of Roddick and Davydenko, who are suffering from injuries, pulls out, then Nalbandian is in for Shanghai. That’s bad news for everybody in top-8 including Mr. Federer.
Full article…
Paris, France (Sports Network) – David Nalbandian finished an unbelievable run by stunning second-seeded Rafael Nadal to win the Paris Masters Sunday.
After falling behind 4-3 in the first set, the Argentine stormed back to win nine straight games en route to a 6-4, 6-0 victory,
Nalbandian has become a giant killer of late. After beating Nadal in the quarterfinals at Madrid, Nalbandian went on to knock off Novak Djokovic in the semifinals and world No. 1 Roger Federer in the title match. He became just the third player in ATP history to beat the world’s top three players in the same event, joining the great Boris Becker, who did it in 1994, and Djokovic, who accomplished the feat at the Montreal Masters this year.
Nalbandian also beat Federer this week, eliminating the Swiss star in the third round on Thursday.
The Paris crown marks Nalbandian’s second title of 2007 and the seventh of his career. He is also a perfect 2-0 lifetime against Nadal, with the 6-1, 6-2 rout of the Spanish lefty in Madrid the only previous meeting.
Nadal, meanwhile, failed in his bid to claim his seventh title of 2007.
Nalbandian earned $491,412 for his win and will vault back into the world top 10 at No. 9 on Monday. Nadal pocketed $245,706.
