Gastón Gaudio

Gastón Norberto Gaudio
Country  Argentina
Residence Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of birth December 9, 1978 (1978-12-09) (age 32)
Place of birth Temperley, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight 70 kg (150 lb; 11 st)
Turned pro 1996
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money $6,017,010
Singles
Career record 269–189
Career titles 8
Highest ranking No. 5 (25 April 2005)
Current ranking No. 185 (21 June 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 3R (2002, 2005, 2006)
French Open W (2004)
Wimbledon 2R (2002, 2006)
US Open 3R (2002, 2006)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals SF (2005)
Olympic Games 1R (2000)
Doubles
Career record 26–38
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 78 (June 14, 2004)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 3rd (2004)
French Open 3rd (2004)
Wimbledon -
US Open 1st (2003, 2004)
Last updated on: February 1, 2008.

Gastón Norberto Gaudio (born December 9, 1978 in Temperley, Buenos Aires) is a professional tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP ranking was No. 5 in 2005. His most significant title win came in the 2004 French Open.

Gaudio is one of the most unpredictable players in the modern game, as he is capable of shotmaking especially with his single-handed backhand and dropshots.

Gaudio is a fan of Club Atlético Independiente football team. He learnt the game at the Temperley Lawn Tennis Club and his first coach was Roberto Carruthers.[1] In addition to tennis Gaudio played football and rugby as a child and chose tennis to help out his parents financially when their business ran into economic problems.[2]

Contents

Tennis career

Gaudio started playing tennis at the age of 6 and was ranked one hundred forty-five in the Argentine juniors behind Mariano Zabaleta. He turned professional in 1996 and in 1998 he won two ATP Challenger events in Santa Cruz, Bolivia over Luis Adrián Morejón and finished year by winning in Santiago defeating Karim Alami.

1999-2000

Gaudio won two consecutive Challengers in Nice and Espinho defeating Jacobo Díaz and Markus Hipfl respectively. Gaudio's first notable performance was when he reached the third round at the French Open as a qualifer, so he won 5 matches in total at the event, including coming back from two sets down to love in the second round against Bernd Karbacher to win 6–7(3) 4–6 6–3 6–1 6–4, then losing to world number 6 Àlex Corretja in the next round .

2000 saw Gaudio establish himself on the main tour and win his only challenger of the year in Braunschweig over countryman Franco Squillari 6–4 6–7(2) 6–4. In addition to his Challenger title, Gaudio made the semi finals in Auckland, Santiago and in his most impressive performance of the season, the Monte Carlo Masters where he defeated Marat Safin, Félix Mantilla, Julien Boutter and Juan Carlos Ferrero without dropping a set, before losing to Slovakia's Dominik Hrbatý in a tough 3-set match; 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Gaudio also made the final of Stuttgart again playing against fellow Argentine Franco Squillari. Gaudio lost the final 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 despite having beaten his opponent soundly in the Gstaad quarterfinals and in the Braunschweig finals earlier in the year (both on clay) and leading Squillari 2 sets-1 in Stuttgart. Gaudio also represented Argentina in his first Olympic Games, losing to Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1 in the first round.

2001

Gaudio started his 2001 in poor fashion losing his first 4 matches of the season to Vladimir Voltchkov, future French Open finalist Andrei Medvedev, 3-time French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten, and, in his Davis Cup debut, Mexican Bruno Echagaray. Gaudio soon went back to his winning ways however, reaching the final of Viña del Mar, losing to bitter rival and countryman Guillermo Coria 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Gaudio would avenge that defeat to Coria in a hard fought victory in the quarter finals of Buenos Aires, which involved both players making rude gestures and insulting each other regularly. After this victory Gaudio lost in the semi finals to José Acasuso 6-3, 7-6(6). In the American Hardcourt Swing after the 2001 Australian Open he made the quarter finals of the Miami Masters losing to 19th seed Jan-Michael Gambill 3-6, 7-5 6-4. Along the way Gaudio dismantled 5th seed Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-4, 6-1, a 3-time slam winner, and toughed out out a 3-set slugfest against future French Open winner and 12th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-0, 3-6, 6-3. Although he did not manage to win his first title in 2001, Gaudio had some success, making a final, a semi and 4 quarter finals (1 0f them being the prestigious Miami Masters). In addition to this he helped Argentina return to the World Group after a perfect 5–0 record in his singles matches which were all played in Argentina on clay courts. The year wasn't great though; Gaudio lost a lot of early round matches and an astounding 12 first round matches, never making it past the first round of a slam. Because of his inability to win these early round matches Gaudio's ranking slipped from #34 at the beginning of the year to #48 at the end of 2001.

2002

Gaudio had a decent start to his 2002 campaign making the 3rd round of the Australian Open and the quarters of Indian Wells and the round of 16 at Miami. Continuing on from his successful Davis Cup debut, In 2002 Gaudio defeated Ivo Karlović in the fifth match to secure a semi final place for Argentina. Gaudio also won the first tournament of his career in Barcelona without dropping a set. Gaudio defeated world #1 and US Open Lleyton Hewitt in the semi finals and then dismissed Spaniard Albert Costa 6–4 6–0 6–2 in the final, who later that year won his only Grand Slam at the French Open. Gaudio followed up his maiden title with another in Barcelona by winning Majorca the next week where he defeated world #2 Gustavo Kuerten in the semi finals before defeating the Finn Jarkko Nieminen in the final 6–2 6–3.

Gaudio made the fourth round of the French Open losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero 6–7 6–1 6–7 6–2 6–4, while leading 4–1 in the final set and this inability to close out matches when in a winning position has been a constant fixture in his career. After Roland Garros Gaudio made the final in Gstaad and the semi finals in Kitzbühel losing on both occasions to Àlex Corretja. In the Davis Cup semi final against Russia Gaudio was leading 5–1 in the 5th set against Yevgeny Kafelnikov and had a match point which was overruled by umpire Jorge Dias in Kafelnikov's favour who then went on to take the set 8–6 and the match.

2003

There were no titles for Gaudio in 2003, but he was involved in two controversies, the first of them involved Guillermo Coria in the Hamburg Masters, where they were part of an all-Argentine semi final line up the others being David Nalbandian and Agustín Calleri. Gaudio and Coria played in one semi final and after Coria won the first set and then Gaudio won the second set. Coria took an injury timeout for cramps and then after the timeout, Coria, after breaking serve at the change of ends beats his left breast while staring at his opponent, which Gaudio took as an insult. Coria preceded to win the last 6–0 and was moving around the court without problems and there was allegedly a confrontation after the match in the locker room.[3]

The other was the Davis Cup semi final against Spain in Málaga, where the two top players David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria where unavailable due to injury. An out of form Gaudio was called up along with Agustín Calleri, Mariano Zabaleta and Lucas Arnold. Spain won 3–2, but Gaudio lost both of his matches easily to Juan Carlos Ferrero losing 14 games in a row in a 6–4 6–0 6–0 defeat and in the fifth match against Carlos Moyà 6–1 6–4 6–2 and was roundly criticised back in Argentina for these performances. "When I returned to Buenos Aires after playing Davis Cup in Moscow and Málaga, you had the impression it was my fault and that hurt me", he said.[4]

2004

2004 started slowly for Gaudio and after reaching the final in Barcelona losing to Tommy Robredo in 5 sets and on the back of two victories in the World Team Cup over Martin Verkerk and Lleyton Hewitt. Gaudio came into the French Open ranked 44th and was unseeded for the tournament after defeating compatriot Guillermo Cañas over 2 days in 5 sets, then he won another 5 set match against Jiří Novák, then Thomas Enqvist, Igor Andreev and Lleyton Hewitt were dismissed on route to the semi finals, where three out of four semi finalists were Argentine and then defeated Nalbandian in 3 sets.

In the all-Argentine final Gaudio defeated Guillermo Coria 0–6 3–6 6–4 6–1 8–6 Gaudio became the first Argentine to win a Grand Slam since Guillermo Vilas, in 1979, the first man to win a Grand Slam after losing the first 6–0. He became the fifth lowest ranked player to win a Grand Slam, the first man in 70 years to win a Grand Slam saving match points in the final. Gaudio reached the top 10 in the ATP Entry rankings for the first time. Gaudio had achieved his childhood dream by winning Roland Garros [5] and likened the match to a movie and did not know what was going on [6]. Gaudio did not play Wimbledon and returned to tour in Båstad losing in the final to friend Mariano Zabaleta. He also made finals in Stuttgart and Kitzbühel and made his first appearance at the Tennis Masters Cup where he had 0–3 record.

2005

Gaudio consolidated his top 10 ranking in 2005, by winning 5 tournaments and his 42-8 on clay only second to Nadal. Gaudio and Coria were at the centre of another dispute at the World Team Cup where Gaudio said "Let's be truthful, this isn't a team, because there's someone who makes decisions choosing the best for himself. I can understand that a player gets tired and decides to rest before Paris. I also did so on Tuesday against the Czechs but not in the most important match of all. Coria and I were the best team and if we were a real team this wouldn't have happened." [7]

He lost in fourth round of Roland Garros to David Ferrer after leading 4–0 in the 5th set and losing 6 consecutive games, when leading in the 5th set Gaudio said to Ferrer's coach at one point."Don't worry; I'm not going to win today". Gaudio also qualified again for the Tennis Masters Cup where he made the semi finals defeating Mariano Puerta and Fernando González and lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the round robin, before losing to Roger Federer 6–0, 6–0 in the semifinals.

2006

Gaudio was not able to keep up his level of play to the standards he set from mid 2004 to 2005. His best performances for 2006 have included semi finals in Acapulco and the Monte Carlo Masters and he finished the year ranked at 34. Ranked in the top ten, Gaudio started 2006 off well at the French Open, where he lost in the fourth round in four sets to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko . Gaudio lost at Wimbledon match to Irakli Labadze (a qualifier), and lost his 2006 US Open 3rd round match to Marc Gicquel.

2007

Gaudio started 2007 poorly and lost 8 consecutive matches stretching back to 2006 before recording a victory over Luis Horna who retired from the match with a strained hamstring, but Gaudio followed up with a conventional win against Juan Pablo Guzmán before losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarter finals of Acapulco. At the French Open in 2007, he won his first round match against Marc Gicquel (he lost to him the previous year) in five sets. He was to face Lleyton Hewitt, seeded 14, and won the first two sets 6–4, 6–3. However, Hewitt won the next three sets and thus the match 4–6, 3–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–2. As a result, Gaudio's rank dropped to 99. In late 2007, Gaudio's ATP ranking had fallen to 180 in the world. During the second part of the year, he started to play clay court challenger events in Europe to attempt to rebuild his career, but he suffered an ankle injury while playing in the Napoli challenger.

2008-09

Gaudio came back in January 2008 at a Challenger Series event in Miami, Florida. He lost in the opening round 6–0, 6–3 to Kei Nishikori of Japan. Later in the month Gaudio continued his comeback attempt at the Movistar Open in Viña del Mar, Chile. Granted a wild card into the main draw of the tournament, Gaudio lost to Santiago Ventura 6–0, 6–3 in the first round.

In February 2009, Gaudio received a wild card into the main draw for the Buenos Aires tournament, an ATP World Tour 250 event in his home country. Gaudio lost to Daniel Gimeno Traver of Spain in the first round 6-2 4-6 6-2.

Gaudio received another wild card into the main draw in the Barcelona tournament, an ATP World Tour 500 event, where he won his first match on the world tour since the 2007 French Open by defeating Diego Junqueira of Argentina 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, before losing his second round match to Tommy Robredo 7-6, 6-1.

Gaudio won a tournament after almost four years at the Tunis Challenger. He beat Portuguese Frederico Gil 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 in the final. Gaudio was awarded a wild card into the first round of the 2009 French Open, where he was beaten by Czech Radek Štěpánek in the first round 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. Playing his first tournament since the US Open qualifying. In October Gaudio made the final of the Buenos Aires challenger losing to training partner Horacio Zeballos 6-2 3-6 6-3.

After finish the 2008 season without a ranking [8]. Gaudio finished the 2009 season ranked at #167[9]

2010

In an interview on the Argentine program Vertigo, Gaudio revealed that he had received psychiatric treatment for clinical depression during his time away from tennis [10] After a poor start in 2010, Gaudio won the San Remo Challenger, defeating countryman Martín Vassallo Argüello 7-5, 6-0.

In an unlikely turn of events, Gaudio returned to the French Open to play in the qualifying where he was a Grand Slam winner just 6 years before. He posted an impressive victory over American Lester Cook in the first round but was taken out by Thiago Alves in straight sets in his next match.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1-0)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Winner 2004 French Open Clay Argentina Guillermo Coria 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1, 8–6

Career finals

Singles: 15 (8-7)

Wins (8)
Legend
Grand Slam (1)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP International Series Gold (2)
ATP International Series (5)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 22 April 2002 SpainBarcelona Clay Spain Albert Costa 6–4, 6–0, 6–2
2. 29 April 2002 SpainMajorca Clay Finland Jarkko Nieminen 6–2, 6–3
3. 24 May 2004 FranceFrench Open, Paris Clay Argentina Guillermo Coria 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1, 8–6
4. 31 January 2005 ChileViña del Mar Clay Chile Fernando González 6–3, 6–4
5. 7 February 2005 ArgentinaBuenos Aires Clay Argentina Mariano Puerta 6–4, 6–4
6. 1 May 2005 PortugalEstoril Clay Spain Tommy Robredo 6–1, 2–6, 6–1
7. 4 July 2005 SwitzerlandGstaad Clay Switzerland Stanislas Wawrinka 6–4, 6–4
8. 31 July 2005 AustriaKitzbühel Clay Spain Fernando Verdasco 2–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-ups (7)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. July 2000 GermanyStuttgart Clay Argentina Franco Squillari 6–2, 3–6, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
2. 12 February 2001 ChileViña del Mar Clay Argentina Guillermo Coria 4–6, 6–2, 7–5
3. 15 July 2002 SwitzerlandGstaad Clay Spain Àlex Corretja 6–3, 7–6(3), 7–6(3)
4. 5 July 2004 SwedenBåstad Clay Argentina Mariano Zabaleta 6–1, 4–6, 7–6
5. 12 July 2004 GermanyStuttgart Clay Argentina Guillermo Cañas 5–7, 6–2, 6–0, 1–6, 6–3
6. 25 July 2004 AustriaKitzbühel Clay Chile Nicolás Massú 7–6(3), 6–4
7. 24 July 2005 GermanyStuttgart Clay Spain Rafael Nadal 6–3, 6–3, 6–4

Doubles: 3 (3-0)

Wins (3)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partnering Opponent in the final Score
1. February 16, 2004 Chile Viña del Mar Clay Argentina Juan Ignacio Chela Ecuador Nicolás Lapentti
Argentina Martín Rodríguez		 7–6, 7–6
2. April 19, 2004 Portugal Estoril Clay Argentina Juan Ignacio Chela Czech Republic František Čermák
Czech Republic Leoš Friedl		 6–2, 6–1
3. July 24, 2006 Germany Stuttgart Clay Belarus Max Mirnyi Switzerland Yves Allegro
Sweden Robert Lindstedt		 7–5, 6–7, [12-10]

Challengers and futures (8)

Challengers (7)
Futures (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 13 July 1998 Spain Elche Clay Argentina Diego Hipperdinger 6–3, 6–4
2. 31 August 1998 BoliviaSanta Cruz Clay Ecuador Luis Morejon 6–2, 6–3
3. 7 December 1998 ChileSantiago Clay Morocco Karim Alami 6–2, 3–6, 6–4
4. 12 April 1999 FranceNice Clay Spain Jacobo Díaz 6–2, 6–3
5. 26 April 1999 PortugalEspinho Clay Austria Markus Hipfl 6–4, 6–1
6. 19 June 2000 GermanyBraunschweig Clay Argentina Franco Squillari 6–4, 6–7(2), 6–4
7. 27 April 2009 TunisiaTunis Clay Portugal Frederico Gil 6–2, 1–6, 6–3
8. 2 May 2010 ItalySan Remo Clay Argentina Martín Vassallo Argüello 7-5, 6-0

Performance timeline

Singles

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the U.S. Open, which ended on September 10, 2007.

Tournament 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Career W-L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A 1R 1R 3R 2R 2R 3R 3R 1R A A A 8–8
French Open A A A A 3R 2R 1R 4R 3R W 4R 4R 2R A 1R LQ 22–9
Wimbledon A A LQ LQ 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R A A 2R A A A A 2–6
U.S. Open A A A A 1R 1R 1R 3R 1R 2R 1R 3R A A LQ 5–8
Win-Loss 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 2-3 1-4 0-4 8-4 3-4 9-2 5-3 8-4 1-2 0-0 0-1 0-0 37–31
Year-End Championship
ATP World Tour Finals A A A A A A A A A RR SF A A A A 2–5
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics NH A Not Held 1R Not Held A Not Held A Not Held 0–1
ATP World Tour 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A A A A A 1R QF 1R 3R 3R 3R A A A LQ 6–6
Miami Masters A A A A A 2R QF 4R 2R 2R 4R 2R 2R A LQ LQ 10–8
Monte Carlo Masters A A A A A SF 2R LQ 3R 2R QF SF 2R A A A 16–7
Rome Masters A A A A 2R 2R 1R 1R 3R 1R 3R 1R 2R A A A 7–9
Madrid Masters A A A A A A LQ 1R 2R A 2R 1R A A A A 1–4
Canada Masters A A A A A 2R 2R 1R 1R 1R QF 1R A A A A 5–7
Cincinnati Masters A A A A A 1R 2R 1R 3R 2R 1R A A A A A 4–6
Shanghai Masters Not Held NMS Not Held Not ATP Masters Series A 0–0
Paris Masters A A A A A 1R A 2R 2R 2R QF A A A A 4–5
Hamburg Masters A A A A A 1R 3R A SF 1R 3R 2R 1R A NM1 9–7
Career statistics
ATP Finals Reached 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 18
ATP Tournaments Won 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 18
Year End Ranking 813 323 639 138 73 34 48 21 34 10 10 34 182 - 167 N/A

Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses. To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

Terms to know
SR the ratio of the number of singles tournaments
won to the number of those tournaments played		 W-L player's Win-Loss record
Performance Table Legend
NH tournament not held in that calendar year A did not participate in the tournament
LQ lost in qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(RR = round robin)
QF advanced to but not past the quarterfinals SF advanced to but not past the semifinals
F advanced to the final, tournament runner-up W won the tournament
NMS means an event that was not an ATP Masters Series tournament.
NM1 means an event that was not an ATP Masters 1000 tournament.

References

  1. ↑ (Spanish) "Temperley vibró con la conquista". La Nación. 2004-06-07. http://www.lanacion.com.ar/archivo/Nota.asp?nota_id=608264 (Spanish). 
  2. ↑ "Tennis Feuds by Paul Fein". Sports Illustrated South Africa. 2006-12-20. http://www.sportsillustrated.co.za/static/tenner/story.php?id=1749. 
  3. ↑ "Old insult gives final edge by Linda Pearce". The Age. 2004-06-06. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/05/1086377184922.html. 
  4. ↑ "Superbrat inspired French Open title miracle, says Gaudio". ABC Australia. 2004-06-07. http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/s1126087.htm. 
  5. ↑ "Gaudio finds faith at death". SMH. 2004-06-08. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/07/1086460239224.html?oneclick=true. 
  6. ↑ Source
  7. ↑ "Argie Bargy". BBC. 2008-05-27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/4447479.stm. 
  8. ↑ "2008 End of Season Ranking". SteveGTennis. 2010-01-31. http://stevegtennis.com/rankings/2008/s2008.htm. 
  9. ↑ "2009 End of Season Ranking". SteveGTennis. 2010-01-31. http://stevegtennis.com/rankings/2008/s2008.htm. 
  10. ↑ "El Gato En La Red". Telefe En Vivo. 09-05-2010. http://es.justin.tv/zeustvenvivo_31/b/263228865. 

External links

French Open men's singles champions

(1968) Ken Rosewall · (1969) Rod Laver · (1970) Jan Kodeš · (1971) Jan Kodeš · (1972) Andrés Gimeno · (1973) Ilie Năstase · (1974) Björn Borg · (1975) Björn Borg · (1976) Adriano Panatta · (1977) Guillermo Vilas  · (1978) Björn Borg · (1979) Björn Borg · (1980) Björn Borg · (1981) Björn Borg · (1982) Mats Wilander · (1983) Yannick Noah · (1984) Ivan Lendl · (1985) Mats Wilander · (1986) Ivan Lendl · (1987) Ivan Lendl · (1988) Mats Wilander · (1989) Michael Chang  · (1990) Andrés Gómez · (1991) Jim Courier · (1992) Jim Courier · (1993) Sergi Bruguera · (1994) Sergi Bruguera · (1995) Thomas Muster · (1996) Yevgeny Kafelnikov · (1997) Gustavo Kuerten · (1998) Carlos Moyà · (1999) Andre Agassi · (2000) Gustavo Kuerten · (2001) Gustavo Kuerten · (2002) Albert Costa · (2003) Juan Carlos Ferrero · (2004) Gastón Gaudio · (2005) Rafael Nadal · (2006) Rafael Nadal · (2007) Rafael Nadal · (2008) Rafael Nadal · (2009) Roger Federer · (2010) Rafael Nadal