Nalbandian Helps Federer into SFs; Swiss Repays the Favor
© Getty Images By Bill Scott
Defending champion David Nalbandian (audio) knocked Andy Roddick out of the Tennis Masters Cup with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) Red group victory on Thursday, which also boosted world No. 1 Roger Federer into a final-four place.
When Federer later defeated Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets in the final match of the red group, that locked up a semifinal berth for Nalbandian, who finished the round-robin competition tied with Ljubicic and Roddick with 1-2 win-loss records. The Argentine advanced because he had a better sets-won percentage (4-4 versus 3-5 for Roddick and Ljubicic).
Roddick, a 2003 and 2004 semi-finalist at home in Houston, will be leaving after his earliest exit at the season-ending spectacular.
Nalbandian successfully grasped at his last-chance hope, earning the win despite 18 Roddick aces in one hour, 37 minutes.
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The Argentine, who is mourning the accidental death of his nine- year-old godchild in Cordoba in an elevator accident, momentarily forgot his sorrow to stay in the fight for a possible title repeat in Shanghai.
"I played well in the beginning and got off to a fast start," said the Argentine. "I took control of the match.
"He didn't seem to wake up until the second set, so I took advantage. But I was nervous when I was serving for the win.
"Andy put on some pressure then and lifted his game. I played a god tiebreak after his mini-break. I played well, but this was not an easy win."
Nalbandian served up a five-set comeback win over Federer here in the showcase thriller a year ago.
Federer improved to a perfect 3-0 in the so-called "group of death," following a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who was unable to reverse a run of seven straight losses to the Swiss superman.
The result sends Nalbandian through to the semifinals.
© Getty Images Roddick's match was a frustrating exercise for the American coached since the summer by the legend Jimmy Connors.
"It's a downer, don't get me wrong,: he said. "But I can still take a lot of positives away from the last four months of the year.
"Going into the summer, I was, 18 in the champions race with people questioning if I would ever play top level tennis again.
"Right now I can choose to look at the negatives going into next year; I can choose to look at the positives. Fortunately, the last half of the year there were a lot more positives than negatives."
Roddick committed his first and only double-fault of the contest during the tiebreaker to throw Nalbandian a lifeline, 5-3.
The big Argentine grabbed it, smashing an overhead two points later for a pair of match points; one was enough as Roddick found the net on a return.
Nalbandian struck six double-faults and 35 winners while breaking Roddick three times. The American produced 30 unforced errors as he dropped to 3-2 against Nalbandian.
The pair last played in 2003 in the Basel semi-finals.
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