Acapulco Draw

Update (27/02)
The new rankings are out and David has moved up 15 positions to #70.

Here it is, the draw for David's tournament next week, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco. Due to a couple of withdrawals, he was able to get into the main draw without needing his wildcard. David has been drawn into the top half again, which looks like this:

[1] David Ferrer (ESP) vs [WC] Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)
Lukasz Kubot (POL) vs [WC] Daniel Garza (MEX)
Leonardo Mayer (ARG) vs Pablo Andujar (ESP)
[Q] Facundo Bagnis (ARG) vs [5] Florian Mayer (GER)

[3] Gilles Simon (FRA) vs Carlos Berlocq (ARG)
[Q] Alessandro Gianessi (ITA) vs Potito Starace (ITA) 
David Nalbandian (ARG) vs Santiago Giraldo (COL)
Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) vs [7] Marcel Granollers (ESP)

Complete draw here.

This is David's altogether fifth appearance at this event and the first in three years, after having missed out on the last two editions due to injury. His record at Acapulco is a bit of a mixed bag. He made it to the final in 2008 (which he lost to Nicolas Almagro) but apart from that it's been early exits for David at this tournament, so far.
Against his opponent in the first round, Santiago Giraldo (#80), David has never played before. Let's hope he can have a good start.

No Battle This Time - David Loses to David Ferrer

(Sergio Llamera/Copa Claro)

(Alejandro Pagni/AFP/Getty Images)

The expectations were high before this match, David's first semifinal in more than a year. But in the end, not even the passionate support from his home crowd could help David against "the other David" Ferrer, who prevailed 6-1, 6-4.
The first set saw David practically without any chance, unable to take the initiative during the rallies and making far too many unforced errors (15 to Ferrer's 4).
After the loss of the first set, however, he finally seemed to find his way into the match, with better serving and some well-constructed points. Until at 2-2 the rain came...
In the end, it was only a brief rain delay. But it was enough to derail David's attempt at making a comeback in this match, with Ferrer once again firmly in control after the break. At 5-3 for Ferrer, David managed to save two match points on his serve and once more, the crowd at the BALTC did its best to cheer him on. But then, only moments later, Ferrer served it out to love.
And a very frustrated David fled from the stadium, without another word...
A disappointing ending for what has been a great week at the Copa Claro. Perhaps, the expectations and the pressure were a little too high. Still, David played some very good tennis this week and those semifinal points will help him to improve his ranking.

Coming later tonight: the draw for Acapulco.

Copa Claro SF - David vs David Ferrer

(Reuters)

Update II
This time, the Battle of the Davids wasn't really a battle... As it took "the other David" Ferrer only 64 minutes to beat David 6-1, 6-4. After a terrible and very nervy start, David was just beginning to find his way into the match when a rain delay stopped play.  And when the match finally continued, it was back to the way things had begun...

More tomorrow plus the draw for Acapulco.

(ESPN/Reuters; montage by VD)

Update
7.41pm local. Nicolas Almagro has defeated Stanislas Wawrinka in the first semifinal of the day. Next up now: The Battle of the Davids...

After beating two fellow Argentines in a row, in the semifinal today David gets to face a fellow David: 29-year-old David "Ferru" Ferrer, ranked #5 and the top seed of the tournament. At the PlayStation, the two Davids are a team but when they get to face off on the tennis court it usually means - a battle.

This is Ferrer's third event of the season and the first one on clay, after having successfully defended his title at Auckland and then lost in the quarterfinal at the Australian Open (to Novak Djokovic). At the Copa Claro this week, Ferrer has had it easy so far with victories over Argentine juniors Andrés Molteni and Facundo Bagnis (you may remember them from their stints as hitting partners for the Davis Cup team) before beating Fernando Gonzalez, currently on his goodbye tour, in the quarterfinal yesterday.
For the two Davids, this is encounter number thirteen, with their history on court spanning almost a decade by now and including matches at Masters events, Slams and in Davis Cup. The overall match record stands at 7-5 for Ferrer. But although David won three out of the last four meetings, on clay it's been Ferrer, who has held the upper hand, in all of their four encounters on clay, so far.

Matches between these two tend to be battles. They usually involve a number of breaks on both sides as well as plenty of long, very gruelling rallies and if the match doesn't end in the straights, whoever manages to take the first set prevails in the end. - Those are the empiric facts from past editions. So far this week, David has done exceptionally well, playing with the kind of controlled aggression that has allowed him to keep the rallies (and the matches) short. Today, he'll meet someone who will make that very difficult for him and who won't let him get away with sloppy service games. Ferrer is the favourite to win this match but if David can keep up his level and with the support of the crowd - perhaps anything is possible.

The Copa Claro Run Continues - David Downs Berlocq

"A free tennis lesson", "a lecture", "a display of his enormous talent". Those are some of the descriptions in the Argentine media of what David himself simply called "another great match" that he was "fortunately able to play", his 6-0, 6-3 quarterfinal victory over Carlos Berlocq in merely 61 minutes. In today's semifinal, however, a different kind of test is going to await him, in form of "the other David" Ferrer, the top seed at this event (match record: 5-7).

Last night, two games into the match, all streaming suddenly stopped. Apparently, the match was never supposed to be streamed on Tennis.tv (and the other sites, using their coverage) in the first place. But why it was still listed for a stream - I guess we'll never get to know.
So I can't tell you anything about this match, only that I was still frantically searching for another stream when a look at the scoreboard revealed that David had already taken the first set, 6-0 in what was something like 20 minutes. Apparently getting a little sidetracked after that, and suddenly finding himself down a break at the start of the second set, David levelled the score at 2-2. Having broken again for a 4-2 lead, he held but missed a couple of match points on Berlocq's serve at 5-3 before finally serving out the match, as can be seen in the clip above.

After the match, David was once more very happy with his performance. And he was also happy to have reached the semifinal and to get "another chance of doing it all again", playing in front of his home crowd. After "two very short seasons", during which it was "always very difficult to get any kind of ryhthm or continuity" he's now finally able to play more matches.
- And he's not the only one, who's happy about that.

(Telam)

Copa Claro QF - David vs Carlos Berlocq

(tournament website)

Update II
David's run at the Copa Claro continues: It took him just over an hour today to defeat Carlos Berlocq 6-0, 6-3. In the semifinal tomorrow, it'll now be time for another Battle of Davids, when David gets to face the top seed David Ferrer.

More tomorrow...

(Telam/Reuters; montage by VD)

Update
9.03pm local. The first match of the evening session has just finished. Next up now: David.

It's quarterfinals day at the BALTC and for David that means it's time to play another match against a fellow Argentine - Carlos "Charly" Berlocq, 29 years old and currently ranked #43.
A ranking that's mostly the consequence of his results on clay and especially at clay-court Challengers (of which he won five last season).

After second-round exits at Auckland and at the Australian Open, and now back on his favourite surface again, Berlocq was a finalist at Viña del Mar (lost to Juan Monaco). Last week, he reached the quarterfinal at São Paolo, where he was defeated by Nicolas Almagro, the eventual champion. This week at the Copa Claro, Berlocq caught a bit of a rough start against Pere Riba but after losing the first set in a tiebreaker he then went on to bagel Riba in sets two and three. And afterwards in the second round, Berlocq dispatched third seed Gilles Simon even more easily than David did, last week.
David and Charly Berlocq have met twice, so far. Both matches took place on clay and both times David won in the end. But while their first meeting at Roland Garros 2008 was rather one-sided, and Berlocq virtually chanceless, their second meeting at Santiago last year went the distance, after David "lost his focus" in the second set and was also struggling a bit in what was his first match on clay, last year. A problem he won't have, this time around.

Berlocq is a clay specialist and he has shown himself to be in good form of late. Still, if David can manage to play anywhere near as well as he did against Pico last night then he should have a more than decent chance of winning this match.

Edit: To pass the time until the match and in case you've always wanted to know who David thinks should play him in a movie: "60 seconds with David Nalbandian" on the Davis Cup website.

Gala Performance instead of Battle Epic - David Downs Pico

"Nalbandian cruises into Buenos Aires QFs", "Nalbandian crushes Monaco", "An inspired Nalbandian proves to be too much for Monaco" and last but not least "Lessons by the King". Those are some of the headlines David made last night with his amazingly easy 6-3, 6-1 victory over his compatriot, teammate and training partner Juan "Pico" Monaco. In a match that lasted just under one and a half hours, David didn't lose his serve once and though "Pico didn't have his best day, unfortunately" (quotes from the post-match interview), David played a simply fantastic match that has earned him a place in today's quarterfinal. There, he will meet another Argentine, Carlos Berlocq (match record: 2-0).

(Olé)

Playing "with a lot of intensity from the start", David broke Pico in the very first game. When his following service game turned into a fifteen-minute affair, complete with deuce battle and altogether three break points, it looked as if the match would turn into a battle epic. But those three saved break points turned out to be the only ones David faced in this match. At 3-1, he missed the chance to go up a double break but then managed to break again when Pico served to stay in the set, 6-3.
The second set began with another early break and another 2-0 lead for David, who was now firmly in control of the match. And who, whenever things got a little closer during his service games, managed to take it up a notch.
At 4-1, David got the double break after initially squandering a couple of break points before closing out the match on his own serve. 6-1.

That's merely the order in which things happened during this match. But the real story of it is of course David's brilliant performance, last night. While it has to be said that Pico didn't play well and committed an uncharacteristically large amount of unforced errors, David managed to impose his game on him and the variety he displayed during the rallies left Pico without any answers. Taking risks, whether with his groundstrokes (and with his forehand more solid than before), occasional drop-shots or well-timed approaches to the net, David took control of proceedings early on in this match and unlike the last time these two met at this event - he remained firmly in control until the end. In David's words (who also told the press that he's fine, physically): "I played a very good match and I'm happy about that. I made some errors but fortunately at moments that were not that important. Being in the lead from the start was an advantage. Now I get to play in front of the people here, again."
- Tonight, in the quarterfinal against Carlos Berlocq.

(Telam)

Copa Claro R2 - David vs Juan Monaco

Update
I thought this match would go the distance and that it would turn into a huge, long battle. But today, David found the balance between playing aggressively and not making too many unforced errors. And after just under one and half hours, he prevailed 6-3, 6-1.
In tomorrow's quarterfinal, David will now meet Carlos Berlocq (who beat Gilles Simon).
Apart from that, David will receive a wildcard for Miami (thanks, Mira).

Report and photos tomorrow.

(Getty Images/Reuters; montage by VD)

Less than two weeks have passed since David and Juan Monaco played and fought side by side for Argentina in the first round of Davis Cup. And from what I saw they also had a pretty good time, hanging out together on the third day, during the dead rubbers. Today, however, they meet as opponents in what's the match of the day at the Copa Claro.

Juan "Pico" Monaco, ranked #20 as of this week, began the season with a first-round exit at the Australian Open but then went on to win the title at Viña del Mar, his fourth career title and the fourth one on clay. From Chile, Pico came directly to Bamberg, where he won the first point for Argentina. With his easy victory over Filippo Volandri (who retired) in the first round as the only match he has played since then.
It's the fourth time that David and Pico play an official match against each other and in terms of the match record, David leads 2-1. But those two victories date back to the year 2005. Their most recent encounter took place at this very event (when it was still called Copa Telmex), in the semifinal 2009. Back then, David served for the match in the second set and was two points away from victory before eventually losing in a third-set tiebreak. A match that took place during David's months with the hip injury (as became known much later), a time when he struggled even more with closing out sets and matches.

Today, a lot will depend on whether David can find the balance between playing aggressively in order to keep the points short and not making too many unforced errors. Pico's defensive skills will force him to take risks, to go close to the lines and advance to the net whenever possible. Otherwise David will find himself getting entangled in those long, gruelling baseline rallies that will take their toll, and more so on him than on Pico. In short, it'll be David's offense against Pico's defense and chances are it's going to be a battle...

(tournament website)