When David Nalbandian signed an unmatched ‘Big 3 brochette’ in Madrid | ATP Tour

When Nalbandian signed an unmatched ‘Big 3 brochette’ in Madrid

The Argentine was crowned in the Spanish capital in 2007, after beating Nadal, Djokovic and Federer.

April 24, 2025

David Nalbandian will always be in the memory of Mutua Madrid Open for multiple reasons. One of them, and surely the most remembered, was one of the most epic conquests of a trophy that is remembered in the Tour, a week in which the Argentine could with everyone literally.

At that time, the Argentine became just the third player in thirteen years that he managed to defeat the best of the ranking in the same tournament (neither more nor less than Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer), adding the German Boris Becker in Stockholm 1994 and the Serbian Novak Djokovic in Montreal 2007. occur ever again in the Tour such a feat.

“I was very concentrated, knowing that I would have to play incredibly to win and everything went well for me. It was a great impulse to overcome so many good players that week,” Nalbandian would declare, who had reached the top 3 of the PIF ATP Ranking in 2006 but that had fallen strongly in the ranking after fifteen months without coach.

After starting working with Martín Jaite, Nalbandian signed a special conquest. However, it was not the first time that the Cordoba left the tennis atmosphere with his mouth open: two years before, Nalbandian arrived without rhythm and without convincing the Nitto ATP Finals in Shanghai and would stay with the end of the season event against Federer.

This time, the difficult path and the weight rivals failed to stop a tennis player whose setback was for a museum and that many catalog as one of the best, if not the best, as for the tennis, in not having been able to get a Grand Slass tournament.

His week began against the Frenchman Arnaud Clement, former Top 10. Nalbandian would overcome an adverse start and sign the triumph 5-7, 6-2 and 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes of battle. Then the powerful Tomas Berdych, champion in Halle would arrive. Again, a triumph worked, 4-6, 6-4 and 7-6 (2) in two hours and ten minutes. In R16, the Argentine would give a new taste in the Spanish cement to overcome his compatriot ascendant Juan Martín del Potro, only 19, for a firm 6-2 and 6-4.

The best, then, would remain for the final instances. In the quarterfinals, he gave a tennis class to the host Rafael Nadal 6-1 and 6-2 in just 71 minutes. “I knew that, if I had an opportunity to beat Rafa, it was here. Fast court, Indoor, at height. All this means that the conditions were better for me than for him. That year Rafa did not play much in the previous weeks and was probably a little lack of pace. Nalbandian, champion of eleven trophies in the tour, between laughs.

In the semifinals he won 6-4 and 7-6 (4) to Djokovic, who was already beginning to play prominence to Nadal and Federer’s dominant binomial. “With Djokovic it was more or less the same. The conditions here were better for me than for him. I was playing a great level, with great confidence after winning Rafa that way. I was ready to fight and I think it was one of the best moments against him. I played an incredible tennis,” he recalled.

The definition against Federer was a separate game. It was always before the Swiss, with whom he had a bond of many years. “Every time he entered the court, so he knew he had chances, many chances. And he knew that he did not want to play against me, he recalled the Cordoba, after defeating the Swiss 1-6, 6-3 and 6-3.