David Nalbandian staves off David Ferrer in Rogers Cup first round

August 11, 2010 - 14:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Argentina's David Nalbandian weathered the opening three-set match in Rogers Cup in Toronto to stave off No. 10 seed David Ferrer, tennistalk.com reported.

The first set was quite well played by Nalbandian. Though the two men traded serves and Nalbandian only won the set-winning break at the last moment, the Argentine was decidedly the better player under pressure. Ferrer held a set point at 4-5 on Nalbandian's serve, but a botched return, and then a backhand error erased the chance.

Nalbandian capitalized on Ferrer's disappointment and broke in Ferrer's next service game, but the Spaniard still had break point chances when Nalbandian served for the set. Ferrer missed another chance to force a tiebreaker, and a great serve from Nalbandian gave the Argentine the lead.

The second set was shaky from Nalbandian. Ferrer was able to take advantage of the Argentine's dismal 44% first serve percentage to secure a pair of service breaks and level the match at a set a piece.

If their serving was questionable in the first two sets, it became a downright liability in the third. Five service breaks in total, 3 for Nalbandian, 2 for Ferrer. The match-winning break came for Nalbandian off a terrible service game from Ferrer filled with errors.

Nalbandian will take on Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo in the second round.