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(August 8, 2010) David Nalbandian threw his head back and stretched his arms out wide as if trying to engage the entire stadium in a heart-felt hug. It was a fitting finale as Nalbandian embraced his comeback to tournament tennis with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over Marcos Baghdatis, ending an 18-month title drought and capturing his 11th career championship at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC.

It was Nalbandian's first title on American soil and his first ATP title since he won Sydney in January of 2009.

"I didn't expect to win my first tournament," Nalbandian said. "In the beginning, if I had to bet, I (would not have) bet on myself, of course."

The victory capped a week in which the 117th-ranked wild card defefeated four seeded players — seventh-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, 13th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, fourth-seeded Marin Cilic and the eighth-seeded Baghdatis — to signal his status as a force during the final stretch of this US Open Series and the US Open, which begins on August 30th.



"If he plays like that, he can beat a lot of guys in the top 10," said Baghdatis.

Raising his record to 17-3 on the season with his three losses coming to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, second-ranked Novak Djokovic and French Open semifinalist Jurgen Melzer, Nalbandian is projected to rise to No. 45 when the new ATP Tour rankings are released on Monday. If Nalbandian continues the form he showed this week throughout the rest of the Series, he should be seeded when he plays the US Open, his first major since the 2009 Australian Open.

Enduring hip surgery that sidelined him for nine months last season and hamstring injury that kept him off the court for two-and-a-half months this season, Nalbandian was playing his first ATP event since he reached the Monte Carlo quarterfinals in April.

The former World No. 3 beat Baghdatis to the ball consistently and dictated the direction of rallies from the baseline from virtually the first point of the final.

Nalbandian rifled a forehand return winner crosscourt to earn triple break point and broke at love in the opening game. A love hold in the fourth game gave Nalbandian a 3-1 lead.

Playing his first day match of the week, the 28-year-old Argentine used the sun as an ally in flicking a beautiful forehand lob winner to hold for 4-2. Attacking Baghdatis' second serve from the outset, Nalbandian earned break point on a Baghdatis backhand error and bent low to blast a backhand pass crosscourt to break for 5-2.

Nalbandian drove a stinging serve down the middle to collect the first set, 6-2.