Nalbandian relieved after Grosjean epic

MELBOURNE, Jan 20 (Reuters) Argentine eighth seed David Nalbandian came from match points down for the second time this week to beat Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 5-7 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-1 in a marathon Australian Open third-round tussle today.

Nalbandian, a semi-finalist last year, looked dead and buried at two sets down and 4-5, 0-40 down in the third, but he dug himself out to claim the subsequent tiebreak and went on to win in three hours and 56 minutes on Vodafone Arena.

''I prefer winning in three sets but it's not that simple sometimes,'' said Nalbandian after his second tough five-setter of the week.

''When you're three match points down anything can happen, you miss one or he plays one good point and that's it.'' The 28-year-old Frenchman, semi-finalist here in 2001, used his array of dashing groundstrokes and delicate finesse to take the first two sets, on each occasion breaking the Argentine's serve in the final game.

The Frenchman had accounted for the Belgian Rochus brothers Christophe and Olivier in the first two rounds with his refreshing brand of play and Nalbandian looked next in line.

After two hours and 32 minutes of thrilling play he had three match points on the Argentine's serve, but Nalbandian held his nerve to save them and won the following tie-break 7-4.

He then raced to a 4-1 lead in the fourth and looked to be roaring to a comeback win, but against Grosjean pegged him back to 4-4 before the Argentine again broke to take the match into a decider.

Grosjean, showing signs of an injury that restricted his movements, folded in the last set and Nalbandian had his third win after spending a total of nine hours and 11 minutes on court.

Nalbandian, who took his career record against Grosjean to 2-1 with the win, had saved two match points in his opening-round match against Janko Tipsarevic before the Serb retired through heat exhaustion in the fifth set.

The South American will now play the winner of the all-German third-round clash between Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer.

REUTERS PM BD1214