David Nalbandian will not forget Kristian Pless in a hurry. After all, the Argentine who was competing in the first week of a new season for only the first time in his six-year career was looking for some good preparation here ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne.

The second seed had spelt it out clearly in the media conference soon after landing in this southern metropolis that he will be looking for his maiden Grand Slam this year.

But the 26-year-old Dane had other ideas. After losing a couple of close matches to the World No. 8 in the past, Pless wanted to score this time round.

“I knew I had a pretty good chance. I had my chances on the previous two occasions as well. In fact, I had set points the last time we played, before losing 6-7 in the second set. (Nalbandian won their second round encounter in Beijing 6-3, 7-6 (2) in 2005). On the earlier occasion too, we played a tie-break. (Again a second round clash in Beijing in 2004 saw the Argentine coming through 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3). So I thought I could pull it off this time, but then you don’t expect a win against the World No 8,” Pless told The Indian Express after his round of practice on the Centre Court this afternoon.

The Dane finished the season gone by as the No. 1 player from his country for the first time since 2001. He attained his career-best ranking of 65 in January 2002, before missing the whole of 2003 and the greater part of the 2004 season due to a right shoulder injury that required three operations.

... contd.