David Nalbandian Fact File
David - a proud member of the Homenetmen family
Cast your minds back if you will, to the middle of June when three Armenian tennis players were taking part in a little old tournament which takes place in London every year called Wimbledon. Mari-Gaianeh Mikaelian, Sargis Sargisian and David Nalbandian captured our imaginations and kept us on the edge of our seats every time they played, elevating our sense of national pride and putting us on the map of the Tennis world. In this article we concentrate on perhaps the most successful of these athlete's David Nalbandian.
The Homenetmen members reading this article may find that they have more in common with David than just their ethnic origin. David is a proud member of the Homenetmen family and in a recent interview with Homenetmen's 'Marzig' magazine he was reported to have said that his success was the direct result of his enormous effort, mental and physical preparation, the support of his parents and brothers and his Homenetmen family.
Born on the 1st of January 1982, in Cordoba, Argentina, David started playing tennis from the age of 5 under the watchful eye of his two elder brothers. Father, Norberto, is a salesman; mother, Alda, is a housewife; brothers, Javier used to coach, and DarÆo, is a tennis coach. His hobbies are fishing and watching rally races, a tradition in Cordoba (spent one week in 2001 in San Remo). He enjoys playing soccer and is a big fan of River Plate team.
His talent and dedication have earned him great success and a long list of trophies and medals from a young age both at local and national championship levels and he has represented his country in South American tennis tournaments since 1995. David managed to compile outstanding junior results, winning the US Open title defeating Federer and Eddie Herr International in 1998. He was runner-up at Roland Garros, losing to countryman Coria and semi finalist at Wimbledon in 1999. He was also semi finalist at Orange Bowl in 1998. David won the Wimbledon junior doubles title in 1999 with Coria and finished No. 3 in singles and No. 6 in doubles in the 1998 junior world rankings. He was ranked No. 8 in doubles in 1999. He is currently coached by former ATP pro Gabriel Markus. Currently ranked 21 in the ATP championship rankings, so far this year he was the semi-finalist at Hamburg TMS, quarterfinalist at Buenos Aires, Scottsdale and the Australian Open and he was the doubles finalist with Arnold in Buenos Aires.
We trust and hope that we are yet to see this young man achieve his full potential and wish him the best of luck and enormous success for his future... May be next time he will flatten Henman Hill !!!
Written by Andre Dadayan
