No contest for tennis ace Nalbandian as Davis Cup trumps Masters Cup (AFP)
by Scott Williams 19 minutes ago
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - David Nalbandian is prepared to miss a chance at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai in order to help Argentina try and win the first Davis Cup in the country's history.
That's the plan of the top seed at the Stockholm Open after a crushing 6-1, 6-1 start to the ATP autumn indoor season where he dominated with back-to-back titles in Madrid and Paris a year ago.
And after hammering American Bobby Reynolds in 54 minutes, the world number seven is confident in aiming for Davis Cup glory instead of possibly playing in Shanghai.
"The jet-lag from China to Argentina is terrible," he said on Tuesday after reaching the second round. "I'm not thinking about qualifying for Shanghai.
"We have a chance to win the Davis Cup and that's what I'm concentrating on. That's what I'm worrying about now."
Argentina will host the Spain of Rafael Nadal indoors on a fast hardcourt in the provincial city of Cordoba - Nadal's hometown - and hopes to seize the initiative by taking the clay-court monster off of their surface of choice.
Nalbandian said that he is not worried about the ATP ranking points that he will be defending over the next four weeks, adding that he's feeling confident.
"You never know how it's going to go, but it looks like I'm ready to do it again - but you never know," he said of his run of form a year ago. "I feel good with my game, a lot better than I did at the start of the year.
"I had a great serve today, and played better than I thought I would." Mario Ancic made a fast return to form after a first-round mishap a week ago, advancing 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 over Olivier Rochus.
The Croatian second seed was stunned eight days ago in Metz when he went down in straight sets to one of the rising young guns in the game, Latvian Ernests Gulbis.
But the 24-year-old Ancic quickly proved that the loss was a one-off as he put on a serving display in his winning effort on just under 90 minutes, raining down 19 aces on the hapless Rochus.
The seed lost serve once while breaking three times in the tidy victory at the Kunligahallen, winning his 30th match of the season against 14 losses.
German Rainer Schuettler earned a 6-0, 6-3 victory to put an end to any hopes of Chris Guccione, a result which leaves Australia without a match win at the event since 2000.
The big-serving world number 88 Guccione looked anything but a threat against the veteran Wimbledon semi-finalist, managing just six aces in a 54-minute match.