There are certain tags that fall on you, when doing things totally unintentionally. Nalbandian has fallen into the foray this time by beating teenagers round after round, and has gained the name tennis acne.

He beat Andy Murray, the new pin-up boy of the Women’s Institute, and he did the same to Richard Gasquet, 19, the flashing blade from France and another former winner of the US Open junior championship.

Though this in no way suggests that he is going to grab the title, it seems as though he will come far enough to reach the semi-finals with his dry rot style, thus inhibiting the opponents.

Nalbandian belongs to a league that is in between the sublime touch of Henman, the craftiness of Federer and the blitzkrieg of Andy Roddick. While he was left gasping against Murray, he cramped No 27 seed Gasquet with deft touches.

Lovers of the game said it was a shame that Gasquet could not continue in the same vein of lustrous quality, to match Nalbandian’s bellicose forehands after the first two sets. He squandered away the two break back points, after being broken in the ninth game of the first set.

Even the second set was interesting, with Gasquet producing gorgeous half volleys and Nalbandian, the No 18 seed, showing the cute side to a game that is wrongly labelled baseline slugger. Later, it was déjà vu as Nalbandian assumed the guise of playground bully.

Nalbandian  had bad luck at the Australian open and lost two games to penalties when he smashed his racket in Halle, Germany, this year.

But, the important fact is that he still remains an enigma.