Nalbandian Was Closely Watched On Court Without Incident

Written by: Staff on 26th June 2012

Nalbandian Was Closely Watched On Court Without Incident |

The behavior of David Nalbandian on Day One of Wimbledon was monitored even more closely than the traditional appearance of the Men’s champion at 1pm sharp or the design of Maria Sharapova’s dress. Playing his first competitive match being disqualified for injuring a line judge during the AEGON Championships final at Queen’s Club final, the Argentine behaved himself impeccably.

Although Nalbandian admitted to not being happy with some of the calls from French umpire Pascal Maria, there were no temper tantrums, no arguing and most importantly no bloodshed.

The No.1 Court crowd at the All England Club showed Nalbandian no malice after the incident eight days earlier that required a trip to hospital for the injured line judge Andrew McDougall. But the Argentine was unable to mount any concerted attack on eighth seed Janko Tisparevic and suffered only the second Wimbledon first round exit of his career, losing quite tamely 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.

“That’s the way in these kinds of matches,” said Nalbandian, a Wimbledon finalist ten years ago, who suffered a total cost of more than $70,000 for his misdemeanor . “You have to play better in the important moments. I didn’t.

“But I felt very good with the crowd today. I think everybody understood (what I did at Queen’s) wasn’t a good thing that I did, but was very unlucky as well.”

Nalbandian’s punishment for the AEGON Championships default included the loss of all ranking points accrued in the event and subsequently he missed out on being seeded for Wimbledon. However refused to complain on the subject.

“I’ve been playing for six months,” said the 30 year-old veteran who is currently ranked in 40th position but six years ago peaked as world no.3. “If I’m not seeded, is not only because of one week.”

Nalbandian revealed he had been interviewed by London’s Metropolitan Police about the incident at Queen’s following a complaint of assault. He admitted he wasn’t sure whether the investigation would continue. “I don’t know what they’re going to do,” he said. “I just do my declaration and that’s it. That’s it.”