[5] Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) vs David Nalbandian (ARG)
Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI)
Marc Gicquel (FRA) vs Olivier Rochus (BEL)
BYE vs [4] Nicolas Almagro (ESP)
Jürgen Melzer (AUT) vs Fabio Fognini (ITA)
Florian Mayer (GER) vs [WC] Sebastien Grosjean (FRA)
Jeremy Chardy (FRA) vs Arnaud Clement (FRA)
BYE vs [2] David Ferrer (ESP)
So David will play his comeback match on the Tour against Philipp Kohlschreiber...
It will be David's fourth encounter with the current #27, the match record standing at 2-1 in David's favour. Both of David's victories came on hard courts, a fairly easy one in straights at the US Open 2003 and then a much tougher one at Indian Wells 2007, where David fought back from a set down to eventually seal his win in a third-set tiebreaker. Their most recent match took place at Monte Carlo 2007. There, David had to retire in the second set, due to back problems.
Generally speaking, I'd describe Kohlschreiber (who won Auckland in 2008) as a potentially dangerous opponent for David, and not only because of the comeback situation. When he's on, Kohlschreiber can serve well, play a good all-court game and he also has a pretty strong backhand - a combination David tends to have his problems with.
However, Kohlschreiber has already played an event this season, the Hopman Cup, where he lost all his singles matches (against Murray, Andreev and Golubev). Which might indicate that he hasn't really found his form yet.
And here are a first few quotes from David, who trained at the site with Juan Monaco yesterday...
"My goals are not about winning. I just want to be healthy, with no pain trying to play more matches."
"If I'm right after all that, then it's about taking out tournaments. Let's just say I want to work towards the top 10 for starters."
"My rhythm playing matches was completely gone so it was matter of getting confidence on court. I'm trying to be the good player I was because I could be into my last three years of top-level play." (Source.)
Update
Good news - the tournament stream will be available everywhere, without any geographical restrictions.
30 comments:
since the first 4 seeds receive a BYE, and with Kohlchriber the 5th seed, it means this was the worst draw ever possible to Nalbandian.hope he has other thing to say.
I expect Kohlschreiber is thinking much the same thing. He's the highest seed to have to play the first round... and he has to play David. Be afraid, Kohli, be very afraid... ;-)
i agree istabraq, feelings are mutual, kohlchriber is also unlucky in this draw lol but lets wait and c, if he passes kohli he can pass anyone
Yes, what makes it nerve-racking is that David needs some points this week. If he can get past Kohli he might then have a reasonable run. It's a shame he couldn't have a first week back with no points to defend.
Still, even if his ranking drops further, as long as he's fit and strong again and stays healthy (fingers crossed), he is bound to get back up where he belongs. He's too good not to.
Back on the subject of Kohlschreiber, he hasn't had a confidence-boosting preparation this week in the Hopman Cup - he lost all his singles.
Vamos David !!! you can beat Kolsch
if you really want it...
Istabraq, good point about the Hopman Cup. And yeah, I'm sure Kohlschreiber isn't too happy about the draw, either...
I'm very hopefull, he can do it but have to wait and see ;)
Head 2 Head record (2-1) for nalbandian
Well, first of all, someone please tell David that he got the worst possible debut: that'll make his inspiration appears. Come on! Who didn't think of that?! The difficult way, it's always David's way, jejejeje
Now, like I said before the San Juan and Peugeot cup started, I'll write it again for "good luck": It's probable that David will lose early. We don't have to expect much for him because he'll need time to adjust, to get timing for playing, he's just coming back. ;)
Well, besides the "good luck" factor, what I said it's true. Don't let our hopes go to far because what happened in these exhibition tournaments: the real test starts now. Good luck for David!
(If some message similar to this appears, sorry. But my internet it's a little crazy today!)
The difficult way is always david's way, thats true with the top players, he plays a superb tennis, but his on a comeback, so lets just wish him a good luck.
and congratulations Davy, he saved 2 match points before winning Qatar Open
Thanks for the update, Julia. I like those quotes from David. It seems we're the ones worrying, he's taking the sensible approach. ;-)
I just checked out that article, and they've written yet another article about steak, haha.
The way you wrote that write-up Julia, it made me think of Wawrinka. Well, they've had close matches in the past. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this one goes.
Yeah, what is it with the New Zealand press? Steaks seem to be all they can think about when it comes to writing about Argentine players...
But yeah, in a way, I think it's similar problems as with Wawrinka. If Kohlschreiber plays well. We'll see...
New Zealand press continued.
When they don't write about steaks they come up with some interesting facts...
In case you didn't know, David is 27, his best ranking was #4, he's one of the very few players to hold a winning record over both Federer and Nadal and he suffered a shoulder injury last year...
Unbelievable.
HAHAHHA
this thing cracks me up, steak , 27,#4 lol
on what source they count, i will never know.
Julia, any idea if nalby plays on Monday or Tuesday ?
For some reason, the thought of the New Zealand journalists trying to ask David whether he likes steak amuses me greatly. Maybe the lack of a quote from him explains the silence he probably would give them when confronted with such a question.
Anyway, the order of play has come out now and David isn't playing tomorrow. So Tuesday then? I wonder why the Monday schedule is so tame.
Yeah, has to be Tuesday. I mean, the final is on Saturday...
I hadn't read the steak article until I saw your comment, Krystle. Then I just had to. Almost half the article about steak before they get around to tennis! Fascinating.
Love those "facts" too. I wouldn't want to blame only the NZ press, though - they're all capable of it. But just in case, I'm off to New Zealand now to see if they can take a year or two off my age. ;-)
They still have the final round of qualifying to play tomorrow, so that accounts for four of the first lot of matches. But it does seem a bit of a dull schedule, especially the day session (though who could mind watching David Ferrer play doubles? And then there's the excitement of the GB no. 3...)
I make that nine first round singles still to start by Tuesday. Well, I suppose they know what they're doing. :-0
Argentina: where the tennis players like steak and the cows are nervous. Auckland's beef population would best be advised to head to the other end of paddock with the arrival of David Nalbandian and Juan Monaco yesterday for the Heineken Open.
LOOL this definition of Argentina really makes me laugh hard
It's been a long time since I visited New Zealand, but I seem to recall them being fond enough of barbies themselves. But this may have been a vegetarian journalist. ;-)
"I make that nine first round singles still to start by Tuesday."
I didn't put that very clearly. I meant nine more first round matches to start on Tuesday at the earliest.
Hey.. I will comment something of another topic:
Anyone noticed that there is a new David's oficial site?
It is cool, I hope they keep it update! Because in the other site lots of times wasn't update...
ya Tamar, i have seen it yesterday, its a much better website, and true the old website was only being updated once/10 days. anywayz keep it up Tamar..
The new website is absolutely terrible. It's so obviously created by image slicing in Photoshop then pasting it in straight away. Every piece of text on the home page looks like an image. Imagine if I did that for my job, I could finish a website in 10 minutes!
Some thoughts on what we might expect from David in the weeks ahead. Lleyton Hewitt had similar hip surgery after the Olympics in 2008. He returned at the Hopman Cup at the start of 2009 and won 2 of 3 matches. At Sydney he also won 2 of 3 matches, losing to David 7-6, 7-5 in the quarters. Hewitt won 7 of his first 12 matches and finished the year with a 34-20 record while winning one tournament. Even before the surgery it's safe to say Hewitt was probably on the downside of his career. Still, he had a pretty good year. Prior to the injury David was playing some of the best tennis of his life. So if Lleyton got off to a good start and had some early success I have to think David can too. Hopefully even better.
First comment here, but it looks like whoever wins between David and Kolhschreiber will be playing Italian Thomaz Bellucci. He's a lot younger than Kolhschreiber, but there about the same skill level at the moment, and Bellucci has been moving up the rankings over the last year or so. If David gets through the German though, I bet he will win the next round because Thomaz can self implode if he starts to play bad.
I just read that Nalby has withdrawn from Auckland due to an abdominable strain he suffered during practice. :(
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/tennis/3221387/David-Nalbandian-out-of-Heineken-Open
abdominal strain I meant. Sorry, I was able to confirm it from several sources. :(
That is very disappointing. It seems to happen almost every year, an injury to start off the year. Getting a little used to the feeling, it must be said. The article even says that it's likely he'll skip the Australian Open. Well, it wouldn't be ideal to start a comeback from injury in a Grand Slam. Still I would really like to see him live next week. :(
Well, that's some news to wake up to :(
And I was just starting to get very excited about tennis again. oh well.
I really hope he'll be healthy again soon. It's really disappointing, I'd like for once to see him healthy for a full season. Just...please get well soon, David.
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