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How Nalbandian Became Federer’s Bogeyman

TennisClutch

200,278 views

00:00 Intro
00:51 An Uncomfortable Beginning
03:15 The Bogeyman
07:18 The Master Awakens
10:20 Unexpected legend
17:07 Annus Horribilis
19:56 Irrepetible: Slaying the Big Three
25:56 The rivalry decider

Before Nadal. Before Djokovic.
Roger Federer had a bogeyman — a guy who read him like an open book, made him look mortal from the baseline… and beat him five times in a row.

This is the untold story of Roger Federer vs. David Nalbandian — pure kryptonite, absolute chaos, and the puzzle Roger had to solve to become the GOAT.

From a Monte Carlo beatdown to heartbreak under the New York lights…
From Houston redemption to the Australian Open breakthrough…
All the way to Shanghai 2005 (one of the craziest year-end finals ever), Federer’s 2006 revenge tour, and Nalbandian’s insane 2007 run — when he took out Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer in the same tournament. Twice beating World No.1 and No.2 back-to-back.

🗣️ Was Nalbandian Federer’s toughest headache before Rafa & Novak showed up?

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#Federer #Nalbandian #Tennis #TennisDocumentary #ATP #RogerFederer #DavidNalbandian #TennisHistory #tennisclutch

20 Comments

@GaryLyons 10 months ago

Cool fact about David Nalbandian. He is the only player on earth to beat Djokovic, Nadal and Federer back to back to back to win a tournament 2007 Madrid!

@Irfan87 10 months ago

If talent was the sole metric for greatness in tennis, then Nalbandian and Safin would be right at the very top.

@marianoontivero4447 9 months ago

Nalbandian has the best two-handed backhand in history, a true PlayStation shot.

@gicking3898 10 months ago

Nalbandian will always be in the record books because of that tournament where he beat all 3 Big 3. It'll be a lifelong huge story

@bingkk 10 months ago

Nalby is the 2 handed maestro. Still has the best 2 handed BH of all time. Absolute wizardry with that shot.

@srvrtn21 10 months ago

I always thought Nalbandian was Federer with a two handed backhand. Couldn’t do anything wrong when he was peaking

@WivoRN 10 months ago

Level of research is absolutely amazing. Great job!

@MI-ct9eh 9 months ago

Nalbandian was on of the most talented to ever do it. His matches with Federer were clinics in shotmaking all across the court.

@SCOTT-d3o 9 months ago

Nalbandian was a tennis player who didn't live for tennis. As his coaches told him, "I want to play well for five or six tournaments. The rest doesn't interest me." His life was divided among different interests. In fact, between tournaments, he would return to Argentina to be with his friends and go out. He wasn't always at his physical peak. He also had two shoulder surgeries and one hip surgery. Adding all that up, you can understand why he didn't achieve greater success. I've been watching tennis since the days of Vilas, Borg, and Connors. I've seen them all, and I can say two things about Nalbandian: The best two-handed backhand in history. When he was on fire, nobody could beat him. His shots were unreturnable for any human being.

@argentosodero 8 months ago

In my view, these two when facing each other displayed the most beautiful tennis i've ever seen. Shot making, angles, volleys, the two most talented players in this century

@PaulHadley-t4x 10 months ago

There's something special about Nalbandian. The sudden injection of pace on both wings, the angles, touch at the net and tennis IQ is off the charts. And he kind of has that badass tough guy look too! Good stuff!

@oliviae369 10 months ago

I always say that Andy Roddick didn't win 2003 US Open, but that Nalbandian lost 2003 US Open on those match points. It was also so sad that his family was under kidnapping threats in 2003 and that stress on him must have been horrific. David was so good to watch when he was in the top 10 - all tennis fans missed out on what he could have done for the game.

@K-WT-g5w 10 months ago

Nalbandian unfortunately ended his career without winning 1 GS

@LucaPICurtis 10 months ago

Amazing video. Only one big mistake. Clay was never David's surface. He raised on hard courts in Córdoba.

@danielpaez4210 10 months ago

El mejor tenista que jamas gano un Grand Slam definitivamente.

@dharmeshmohan8664 10 months ago

It's mean winning is not the everything, it matters how you played top level players and ability to defeat them. For Nalbandian I would say a great athlete and very unfortunate for not to win a single grand slam. No matters, he still be considered a Great player.