Nalbandian Keeps Alive Semifinal Hopes
Nalbandian next meets Ljubicic.. By Bill Scott
David Nalbandian triumphed Tuesday in an all-Argentine battle, defeating Guillermo Coria 7-5, 6-4 to showcase his indoor skills at the Tennis Masters Cup 2005. Nalbandian's final round-robin match against Ivan Ljubicic will determine which player from the Red Group joins Roger Federer in the semifinals.
Nalbandian moved well on the Taraflex of the Qi Zhong Tennis Center to down his countryman in just under two hours, producing 37 winners and breaking Coria seven times.
Coria's orange "Spiderman" muscle shirt didn't provide any superhuman power to the 2004 Roland Garros finalist, ranked sixth.
Nalbandian has secured most of his career indoor carpet results at one event, the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, which he won in 2002, and made the finals the next two years.
Against Coria, a pure clay-courter, Nalbandian showed why he's the best all-surface Argentine.
Coria will have one consolation match to go in the Red group as his lifetime record in Tennis Masters Cup play dropped to 1-7 from three appearances in the year-end championships.
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