Nalbandian through to men’s final
AAP Friday 16 January 2009 Comments
Fourth-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian is the first man through to the Medibank International Sydney final after cleaning up Frenchman Richard Gasquet in straight sets.
Nalbandian, who ended Lleyton Hewitt’s quest for a fifth title on Thursday, outclassed the unseeded Gasquet 6-4 6-3 in 81 minutes at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday.
The former Wimbledon finalist broke Gasquet’s serve once in the first set and twice in the second to set up the win and advance to his first final for 2009.
Despite the loss, Gasquet will head to Melbourne for the Australian Open full of confidence after two successive reaching the semifinal in two successive tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney.
Nalbandian will play either top seed and reigning Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic or Jarkko Nieminen in Saturday’s title match.
“Both are going to be tough,” Nalbandian said when asked which player he would prefer to play in the final.
“It’s the first week of the year, so it’s going to be tough for both, for all players.”
“I have to keep going and believing on my game and try to do a good match tomorrow.”
Nalbandian said he felt he had developed and improved his game during each match this week in Sydney.
“I feel that today I played much better than the first one and yesterday, so looks like every day is going on I feel more feeling on the ball and on the game,” he said.
“So it’s good playing a few matches and be in the finals here.”
In the men’s doubles events, the two top seeded pairings have both recovered from a set behind in their respective semifinals and advanced to Saturday’s final.
Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor beat Michael Fyrstenberg and Matkowski 2-6 7-5 (10-5) while Mike and Bob Bryan beat Mahesh Bhuphati and Mark Knowles 1-6 7-6(4) (10-5).
Tags: David Nalbandian, Richard Gasquet
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