It may have been a sheer fluke. It could have set a trend. The truth is that nobody can be sure before Wimbledon gets under way on Monday whether David Nalbandian’s highly unlikely progress to last year’s final heralded the new order of grass-court tennis or whether Rudyard Kipling’s If will need to be translated into Spanish.
There are currently 31 Spanish-or Portuguese-speaking players in the men’s top 100, including 13 Spaniards and 10 Argentinians.
The law of averages suggested that sooner rather than later one of them might get close to the Wimbledon title, but the arrival of Nalbandian on the Centre Court on the final Sunday caught everybody on the hop — except Lleyton Hewitt.
Faced with another base-liner, and with the ball sitting up like a rabbit in the headlights, the Australian picked off the Argentinian with ease in a
disappointing final, winning 6-1 6-3 6-2. This year Nalbandian will be a marked man.
He is seeded number six and was drawn in the first round against Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, himself a surprise semifinalist three years ago.
It was not until the first Friday, in the third round, that anyone paid him much attention at Wimbledon last year. And then it was only because he had defeated Switzerland’s George Bastl who, in the previous round, had startlingly put paid to Pete Sampras.
Nalbandian is in love with the grand tradition of Wimbledon. ”It’s great the way they do things,” he says. ”I remember seeing Boris Becker win on television.
”Wimbledon is the most important of the slams but you never think you are going to win it. Now I’d just love to get another chance.”
With six base-liners in last year’s quarterfinals, together with the burgeoning array of Spanish and South American talent, the ”Nalbandian effect” may persuade others to follow the green grass path rather than the red brick road.
”Last year I thought that if I won two or three matches, I would have done well,” says Nalbandian.
”But now I know that anybody can beat anybody, even on grass.” —