When David Nalbandian reached the men's singles final at Wimbledon in 2002, he was regarded as the most unlikely finalist since Richard Krajicek and Mal Washington made it through to the 1996 showpiece. The Argentine player had previously only reached the finals of two clay-court events and he was not expected to be a frequent threat at the top of the game, but three years later, in 2005, Nalbandian emerged victorious against the odds at the end-of-season Masters Cup.
During that calendar year, Nalbandian had been consistent without producing anything spectacular. Ahead of Shanghai, his only title had been achieved on the clay in Munich, while he had failed to progress past the quarter-final stage of any of the four Grand Slams. One of the standout moments of his year had been fighting back from two sets down to beat an 18-year-old Andy Murray at Wimbledon, and he had only confirmed his place in China with a semi-final appearance at the Madrid Masters in October.
The tournament proved significant for tennis in Argentina, with four of the eight qualifiers coming from the South American nation. Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio and Nalbandian all earned their spot automatically while Mariano Puerta was drafted in after the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal. That left Nalbandian as the seventh seed for the tournament, and he was drawn into a group alongside Roger Federer, Coria and an in-form Ivan Ljubicic.
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The odds of progression were against Nalbandian but straight-sets triumph over both Coria and Ljubicic would see him face Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals, someone whom he would beat 6-0 7-5 to earn a final showdown with Federer, who had suffered three defeats in 84 matches all year and had won on his last 35 outings. Despite Federer's dominance, the pair had endured an eventful rivalry, with Nalbandian, somewhat remarkably, winning their first five meetings before Federer won the last four ahead of their 10th encounter on this day a decade ago.
Another statistic going against Nalbandian was Federer's 24-match winning streak in finals, an Open-era record, and the writing appeared to be on the wall for the underdog when he dropped the first two sets in tie-breaks, the second of which lasted 24 points. His chances of overturning a two-set deficit against a player who had started to re-write the record books were considered nigh-on impossible, but he started what remains one of the greatest comebacks the sport has ever seen by taking the next two sets for the loss of just three games as Federer began to wilt.
The Swiss's downfall was arguably down to his lack of competitive tennis and match fitness. He had spent six weeks on the sidelines prior to the event but despite each of his round-robin matches going the distance, he breezed through the semi-finals without losing a game. Nevertheless, at two sets all, he was considered the underdog after an inspired revival from Nalbandian, who proceeded to race into a 4-0 lead in the fifth.
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Federer looked finished, but he rallied from the brink of defeat to force a final-set tie-break as the season came to a close in dramatic fashion. Despite the six-time Grand Slam winner having the momentum, though, it would be Nalbandian who would tough out the win, taking it 7-3 to complete an almost miraculous achievement against an opponent who had only suffered defeat on clay since falling to Marat Safin in the Australian Open at the start of the year, a period stretching 11 months.
After his triumph, and before collecting his cheque for $1.4m and the keys to a new Mercedes car, Nalbandian said: "I surprised the world. [Federer] almost never loses. To come back from two sets down against the world number one, with his record, it is just incredible."
Success for Nalbandian saw him move into sixth position in the ATP standings, and the ranking points that he achieved provided him with the foundations to launch an assault on the top four. He would begin 2006 by reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the Miami Masters, which would see him reach a career-high of world number three, before he made it to the last four of a Grand Slam tournament for the second successive time at Roland Garros in May.
However, injuries and loss of form meant that Nalbandian would never progress past the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the remainder of his career. Although Nalbandian would reproduce his best tennis in back-to-back Masters Series triumphs in Shanghai and Paris at the back end of 2007, his potential would remain unfulfilled, and in October 2013, he would announce his retirement at the age of 31.
Darren Plant
