Nalbandian retires :(

Due to a shoulder injury.

I will remember him for his insane talent and THAT backhand.
SUch a shame he didn't have the consistency or mental strength of feds as imo they were the closest match talent wise.
I will miss his game greatly.

How will you remember David?

Thanks to socal I shall remember him as Empanada Dave. I don't even know what an Empanada is - some sort of Mexican food I guess?

A great talent but we rarely saw the best of him, partly injuries, partly lack of dedication.

How will I remember him? Terrific feel for the game, delicious backhand, lovely fluid technique. Just didn't make enough of an athlete of himself to notch some slams and write his name in history.

Didn't quite want it enough. Will miss watching him at his best though.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkPtGvB6ck
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSp6VO_G3E
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOBP3N1ejc (despite Federer's blackened right-ankle).
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7AoWobY054
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdPkyjJwH_g
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqe3cBzvlU4

 

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/10/nalbandian-announces-retirement-tennis/49331/#.UktSFhAQPH0

Good vids LF.
He makes feds look foolish at times in some of these.

Thanks, LS. Hopefully, he continues to stay around Tennis and help Argentina.

I've just noticed that the rose emoticon has a little smiley face on it!!

Yes, it does.

Oh no.. he was such a talent .. on his day he could have beaten anyone on tour... Ill miss you Nalby     

amen haddie

Such a shame. The guy was a talent for sure. Just lacked the thinking man's game. Not so much mentally weak, just didn't know the meaning of the word 'consolidate'

Least he didn't waste his talent.

A solid top ten player with a nice game to watch. Always felt he was slightly overrated but certainly had talent. Real shame that his last final ended the way it did. The win in Madrid 07 is possibly the finest run of "victims" in any Masters series win.

Will really miss Nalbandian, what a superb talent. He is undoubtedly one of the best ball strikers you could ever wish to see. His backhand was a thing of beauty. So compact but able to find amazing angles and hit the ball with pace.

Should definitely have won a slam or two but he just lacked something mentally. I will never forget his performances in Paris and Madrid in 2007 and his Masters cup final win against Federer who at that stage was at the peak of his powers.

You could always sense a huge respect that Federer and Nadal had for him over the years. Always sad to see a great player leave the scene but injuries have ravaged his career.

Will miss El Rey David !! happy retirement, a huge loss to the game of tennis. Wont be the same without him

Empanada is a sort pastry, Julius. Really nice when stuffed with cheese.

Tough to see Dave leave, but he has been a shadow of his former self for a few years really. Was never the same after dropping five match points, and then getting bagelled vs Nadal at Indian Wells. The body and soul hasnt been there for a while now. Made a tidy sum of money on tour, should live pretty damn comfortably from here

And have the chance to spend some quality time with his new baby.
Good Luck David in all you do.

Born slippy, find it hard to understand how you think he was over rated. His record against the top players says it all for me, had multiple wins against all the top 4 in their peak years. That alone says enough about how good he is. I think if anything he was a bit under rated, he was capable of the truly sublime tennis.

each to their own opinion i suppose

again agreed slasher.

slashermcguirk wrote:Born slippy, find it hard to understand how you think he was over rated. His record against the top players says it all for me, had multiple wins against all the top 4 in their peak years. That alone says enough about how good he is. I think if anything he was a bit under rated, he was capable of the truly sublime tennis.

each to their own opinion i suppose

Can you clarify who you mean as 'the top 4' ?

LuvSports! wrote:
SUch a shame he didn't have the consistency or mental strength of feds as imo they were the closest match talent wise.
I will miss his game greatly.

LS I won't say he didn't have the mental strength, indeed he posed a great Mental strength to time and again play great when down against legends, who can forget his 2 set deficit to come back and Win a 5 set match over Fed, do you think thats possible if he was a weak mental midget?  
Who can forget his back to back wins over Fed and Rafa in Masters, given his size he was mentally strong to combat all his injuries as well.

What I see in him is lack of dedication towards his physical aspect of the sport and the next thing is consistency, and last focus to play a long tournament and season, may be you meant to say focus and ended up as mental strength I guess.

I would sometimes put him in the category of One Game player, he doesn't have plan B when things go wrong, he is more suited and determined to take on players like Fed, Rafa etc,. than players like Roddick, Roddick always had the upper hand against Nalby, may be a match up issue as well I guess.

On to your last question, how would I remember Nalby as? A great talent and warrior mindset to take on Legends of the sport, but otherwise lack intensity and determination overall to succeed. In short Talented yet Lazy bugger.

Is retirement is a loss to Tennis for sure. 

laverfan wrote:1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkPtGvB6ck
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSp6VO_G3E
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOBP3N1ejc (despite Federer's blackened right-ankle).
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7AoWobY054
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdPkyjJwH_g
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqe3cBzvlU4

Great choice of vids apart from the last one. Also would add in that he reached a Wimbledon final, his "worst kind of rubbish" insult to Tim Henman, and regarding the Queens disqualification, the after match interview was to me more damning to his character than the actual incident itself, not enough apology to the linesman himself and really cringe interview. If Tim Henman had been working for the BBC at the time, maybe he could have come on to court and done the interview, that I would have watched.

Beating Nadal and Federer back to back was, in 2007, some achievement. The two of them had dominated the tour for the three years leading up to the Madrid Masters of 2007 and such back to back victories was unheard of.

Nowadays with Djokovic and Del Potro I think both managing at least once, at the US Open, and Federer in decline, and Nadal having injury periods out, they have much less of a grip on the tour, but at the time it was really big.

And to do it again the next tournament was even more amazing.

And yet, after his 2002 Wimbledon final, and 4 SFs and 5 QFs to follow by the 2006 FO, he didn't reach a quarter final at a slam after the 2006 FO.

His results is slams did tend to peter out in the latter stages, possibly suggesting physical issues. He wasn't able to deliver against top players at the end of the slams.

Nalbandian over rated? Pfft! His standard of tennis winning those back to back Masters in 2007 was some of the best tennis I have seen. If he could have strung a little form like that in a few slams he would be viewed very differently. The tunnel vision often used when basing a players career on slam success alone means some players are both over rated and some like Nalbandian under rated. I missed most of his best years because I assumed it was all still Sampras dull Zzzzzz... but he did get to a Wimbledon final and won the WTF's beating Federer so he started his career with much promise.

Sad that there was a bit about him retiring on the BBC news this morning but they chose to illustrate it with some shots of him at Queens were he got disqualified. Am I correct in thinking he was playing Cilic who is now serving a drugs ban and Cilic was handed the trophy?

Nalbandian is 31 so although it's young it's not that young. I believe he's playing an exhibition with Nadal later in the year. Hope he gets a good send off.

The other thing about the Queens final he won the first set and it was level in the second, he was fairly close to winning the match.

I think his reasonable to acknowledge that his slam results did not match his best results outside of slams. I think he beat Federer in 2003 at the US Open, after that there were very few wins in slams against the real top guys.