David Nalbandian has made it clear that he will play for Argentina in the Davis Cup next year. He brushed aside the rumours that he may possibly step down following a painful loss to Spain in the final. Nalbandian said that it bothers him if someone questions his continuation with the Davis Cup. He added that he sees the participation in the match representing the country s an honour.  He was speaking for a televison interview at a conference in Mar del Plata., the site of Spain’s 3-1 victory over Argentina last weekend. He said that he will defend Argentina’s flag the best way possible.

A sullen-looking Nalbandian added that he was feeling devastated by the loss at home. “Understand the pain of a player not being able to score a point in an important series,” Nalbandian said in the conference. He said that he is looking forward as the terrible weekend is over.

Argentina got its only point in the best-of-five series with the performance of Nalbandian. He defeated David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the first singles match Friday. Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri  were defeated by Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco in the doubles on Saturday. This loss  has left Argentina with the nearly impossible task of winning both reverse singles Sunday, which was a must to grab the title.

Nalbandian was upsett by the doubles loss and decided to skip the news conference after the match, for which he had to pay a fine of  $5,000. Argentina Coach Alberto Mancini justified Nalbandian saying that he left the Islas Malvinas Stadium as he was not feeling well emotionally.

Nalbandian later apologized to reporters for missing the Saturday news conference. But he also used it a chance to nail them for spreading rumours on his argument with  Calleri following the doubles loss.

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It was the day of Venus Williams. The US Tennis star thrashed her sister Venus Williams 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Tour’s season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships. Serena Williams later called the match the worst of the year. Serena started to unravel early in the second set. She recalls it was difficult to keep the eyes on the ball.
Venus Williams won on her fifth match point, and is now 3-0 in round-robin play of a tournament finding her in the list of top eight players. Serena Williams dropped to 1-1, but still has chances of entering the semi-finals if she could win over Elena Dementieva on Friday. Dementieva had earlier thrashed out Dinara Sefina 6-2, 6-4, on Thursday which made Safina move out of the championships.

The Williams’ sisters are 9-9 in career match ups. Serena had earlier defeated Venus in the U.S. Open quarterfinals this year, and Venus won the title match at Wimbledon.

Venus was seen staying composed throughout the match, serving powerfully to frustrate Serena, and refrained from celebrating after winning. Venus was not sounding so enthusiastic after the match, when she told that that Serena did deserve a victory.
The first set was filled with power tennis while in the second set, Serena was seen growing frustrated by her errors. Venus grabbed two set points in the second while Serena double-faulted and converted the second with a crosscourt backhand that passed her younger sister at the net.

Top-ranked Jelena Jankovic had won over Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (6), 6-4 earlier to enter into the semi-final. The seventh-ranked Kuznetsova had to call for a trainer early in the second set for a back injury. Kuznetsova has one more round-robin match left but her chances are less as she has already lost twice.

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