Gastón Gaudio

Gastón Norberto Gaudio
Country (sports)  Argentina
Residence Buenos Aires, Argentina
Born (1978-12-09) 9 December 1978
Temperley, Argentina
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro 1996
Retired 2011
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $6,066,156
Singles
Career record 270–196
Career titles 8
Highest ranking No. 5 (25 April 2005)
Grand Slam Singles 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 26–39
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 78 (14 June 2004)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 3R (2004)
French Open 3R (2004)
US Open 1R (2003, 2004)

Gastón Norberto Gaudio (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡasˈton ˈɡauðjo]; born 9 December 1978) is a retired tennis player from Argentina. He won eight singles titles and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world no. 5 in April 2005. Gaudio's most significant title win came at the 2004 French Open, where he defeated fellow Argentine Guillermo Coria in five sets in the final.

He learned 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]

Tennis career

Gaudio started playing tennis at the age of six and was ranked no. 145 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. He 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 qualifier, so he won five matches total at the event, including coming back from two sets to love down in the second round against Bernd Karbacher to win, 6–7, 4–6, 6–3, 6–1, 6–4, then losing to world no. 6 Àlex Corretja.

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, 6–4. In addition to his Challenger title, Gaudio made the semifinals 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 three-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, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 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 to 1 in Stuttgart. Gaudio also represented Argentina in his first Olympic Games, losing to Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, 6–7, 6–4, 1–6, in the first round.

2001

Gaudio started his 2001 in poor fashion, losing his first four matches of the season to Vladimir Voltchkov, former French Open finalist Andrei Medvedev, three-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, 6–4, 5–7, 2–6. Gaudio would avenge that defeat to Coria in a hard-fought victory in the quarterfinals of Buenos Aires, which involved both players making rude gestures and insulting each other regularly. After this victory, Gaudio lost in the semifinals to José Acasuso, 3–6, 6–7. In the American hard-court swing after the 2001 Australian Open, he made the quarterfinals of the Miami Masters, losing to 19th seed Jan-Michael Gambill, 6–3, 5–7, 4–6. Along the way, Gaudio dismantled fifth seed Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6–4, 6–1, and toughed out a three-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 semifinal and four quarterfinals (one of them at the prestigious Miami Masters). In addition to this, he helped Argentina return to the World Group with a perfect 5–0 record in his singles matches, which were all played in Argentina on clay courts. The year was not 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 Grand Slam. Because of his inability to win these early-round matches, Gaudio's ranking slipped from no. 34 at the beginning of the year to no. 48 at the end of 2001.

2002

Gaudio had a decent start to his 2002 campaign, making the third round of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals 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 semifinal place for Argentina. Gaudio also won the first tournament of his career in Barcelona without dropping a set. Gaudio defeated world no. 1 and US Open champion Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals, and then dismissed Spaniard Albert Costa, 6–4, 6–0, 6–2, in the final. Gaudio followed up his maiden title with another in Mallorca.

Gaudio made the fourth round of the French Open, losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7–6, 1–6, 7–6, 2–6, 4–6, while leading 4–1 in the final set. After Roland Garros, Gaudio made the final in Gstaad and the semifinals in Kitzbühel, losing on both occasions to Àlex Corretja. In the Davis Cup semifinals against Russia, Gaudio was leading 5–1 in the fifth 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. They were part of an all-Argentine semifinal lineup, the others being David Nalbandian and Agustín Calleri. Gaudio and Coria played in one semifinal, and Coria won the first set and Gaudio the second. Coria took an injury timeout for cramps. After the timeout, Coria, after breaking serve at the change of ends beat his left breast while staring at his opponent, which Gaudio took as an insult. Coria proceeded to win the last set 6–0, and there was allegedly a confrontation after the match in the locker room.[3]

The other was the Davis Cup in the semifinals 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 his match against Juan Carlos Ferrero, losing 14 games in a row in a 4–6, 0–6, 0–6 defeat. In the fifth match against Carlos Moyà, he lost, 1–6, 4–6, 2–6, 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, but he eventually reached the final in Barcelona, losing to Tommy Robredo in five sets, then posted 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. In the first round, he upset top-10 player and compatriot Guillermo Cañas over two days in five sets. Then he won another five-set match against Jiří Novák. Gaudio dropped only one more set en route to the final, as he defeated Thomas Enqvist, Igor Andreev, Lleyton Hewitt, and David Nalbandian to set up an all-Argentine final with world no. 3 and pre-tournament favourite Guillermo Coria.

In the final, Gaudio defeated 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, and the first man ever to win a Grand Slam after losing the first set 6–0. He became the fifth-lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam, and the first man in the open era to win a Grand Slam having saved 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 at Roland Garros.[5] Gaudio would not reach another Grand Slam quarter-final for the remainder of his career.[6][7]

Gaudio did not play Wimbledon and returned to the 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 a 0–3 record.

2005

Gaudio consolidated his top-10 ranking in 2005, by winning five tournaments and his 42–8 on clay, second only 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."[8]

He lost in fourth round of Roland Garros to David Ferrer after leading 4–0 in the fifth set and losing six consecutive games. When leading in the fifth 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 semifinals, defeating Mariano Puerta and Fernando González, but losing to Nikolay Davydenko in the round robin stage, before losing to Roger Federer, 0–6, 0–6, in the semifinals.

2006

Gastón Gaudio at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships

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 included semifinals in Acapulco and the Monte Carlo Masters. He finished the year ranked at no. 34. Ranked in the top 10, 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 to Irakli Labadze (a qualifier) and lost his 2006 US Open third-round match to Marc Gicquel.

2007

Gaudio started 2007 poorly and lost eight consecutive matches stretching back to 2006, before recording a victory over Luis Horna, who retired from the match with a strained hamstring. Gaudio followed up with a conventional win against Juan Pablo Guzmán, before losing to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarterfinals of Acapulco. At the French Open, 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 14th, and won the first two sets, 6–4, 6–3. However, Hewitt won the next three sets and thus the match. As a result, Gaudio's ranking dropped to no. 99. In late 2007, Gaudio's ATP ranking had fallen to no. 180. 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 event in Miami, Florida. He lost in the opening round, 0–6, 3–6, to Kei Nishikori. 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, 0–6, 3–6, 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, 2–6, 6–4, 2–6.

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, 6–7, 1–6.

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 2009 French Open, where he was beaten by Czech Radek Štěpánek in the first round, 3–6, 4–6, 1–6. In October, Gaudio made the final of the Buenos Aires Challenger, losing to training partner Horacio Zeballos.

Gaudio finished the 2008 season unranked.[9] Gaudio finished the 2009 season ranked at no. 167[10]

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.[11] 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. 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.

Gaudio announced his retirement from tennis on 30 August 2011.[11]

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: 16 (8–8)

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 Barcelona Clay Spain Albert Costa 6–4, 6–0, 6–2
2. 29 April 2002 Majorca Clay Finland Jarkko Nieminen 6–2, 6–3
3. 24 May 2004 French Open, Paris Clay Argentina Guillermo Coria 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1, 8–6
4. 31 January 2005 Viña del Mar Clay Chile Fernando González 6–3, 6–4
5. 7 February 2005 Buenos Aires Clay Argentina Mariano Puerta 6–4, 6–4
6. 25 April 2005 Estoril Clay Spain Tommy Robredo 6–1, 2–6, 6–1
7. 4 July 2005 Gstaad Clay Switzerland Stanislas Wawrinka 6–4, 6–4
8. 25 July 2005 Kitzbühel Clay Spain Fernando Verdasco 2–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4
Runners-up (8)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 17 July 2000 Stuttgart Clay Argentina Franco Squillari 6–2, 3–6, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
2. 12 February 2001 Viña del Mar Clay Argentina Guillermo Coria 4–6, 6–2, 7–5
3. 8 July 2002 Gstaad Clay Spain Àlex Corretja 6–3, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–3)
4. 26 April 2004 Barcelona Clay Spain Tommy Robredo 6–3, 4–6, 6–2, 3–6, 6–3
5. 5 July 2004 Båstad Clay Argentina Mariano Zabaleta 6–1, 4–6, 7–6(7–4)
6. 12 July 2004 Stuttgart Clay Argentina Guillermo Cañas 5–7, 6–2, 6–0, 1–6, 6–3
7. 19 July 2004 Kitzbühel Clay Chile Nicolás Massú 7–6(7–3), 6–4
8. 18 July 2005 Stuttgart 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 in the final
1. 16 February 2004 Viña del Mar Clay Argentina Juan Ignacio Chela Ecuador Nicolás Lapentti
Argentina Martín Rodríguez		 7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–3)
2. 19 April 2004 Estoril Clay Argentina Juan Ignacio Chela Czech Republic František Čermák
Czech Republic Leoš Friedl		 6–2, 6–1
3. 24 July 2006 Stuttgart Clay Belarus Max Mirnyi Switzerland Yves Allegro
Sweden Robert Lindstedt		 7–5, 6–7(4–7), [12–10]

Challengers and Futures (8)

Wins (8)
Challengers (7)
Futures (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 13 July 1998 Elche Clay Argentina Diego Hipperdinger 6–3, 6–4
2. 31 August 1998 Santa Cruz Clay Ecuador Luis Morejón 6–2, 6–3
3. 7 December 1998 Santiago Clay Morocco Karim Alami 6–2, 3–6, 6–4
4. 12 April 1999 Nice Clay Spain Jacobo Díaz 6–2, 6–3
5. 26 April 1999 Espinho Clay Austria Markus Hipfl 6–4, 6–1
6. 19 June 2000 Braunschweig Clay Argentina Franco Squillari 6–4, 6–7(2–7), 6–4
7. 27 April 2009 Tunis Clay Portugal Frederico Gil 6–2, 1–6, 6–3
8. 3 May 2010 San Remo Clay Argentina Martín Vassallo Argüello 7–5, 6–0
Runners-up (2)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 10 August 1998 Belo Horizonte Hard Brazil Francisco Costa 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
2. 28 September 2009 Buenos Aires Clay Argentina Horacio Zeballos 6–2, 3–6, 6–3

Performance timeline

Singles

Key
W  F  SF QF R# RR Q# A NH
(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent from tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.
Tournament 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 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 Q2 22–9
Wimbledon A A Q1 Q1 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R A A 2R A A A A 2–6
US Open A A A A 1R 1R 1R 3R 1R 2R 1R 3R A A Q1 A 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 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 Q1 6–6
Miami Masters A A A A A 2R QF 4R 2R 2R 4R 2R 2R A Q1 Q1 10–8
Monte Carlo Masters A A A A A SF 2R Q2 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 Q1 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 A 0–0
Paris Masters A A A A A 1R A 2R 2R 2R QF A 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
Finals 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 15
Titles 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 8
Year End Ranking 813 323 639 138 73 34 48 21 34 10 10 34 182 – 167 326

Top 10 wins per season

Season 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
Wins 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 12

Wins over top 10 players per season

# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score
2001
1. Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 5 Miami, United States Hard 3R 6–4, 6–1
2. Russia Marat Safin 2 Hamburg, Germany Clay 2R 6–0, 7–6(7–0)
3. United States Andre Agassi 2 Cincinnati, United States Hard 1R 6–4, 7–6(7–3)
2002
4. France Sébastien Grosjean 8 Miami, United States Hard 3R 7–6(9–7), 4–6, 6–1
5. Australia Lleyton Hewitt 1 Barcelona, Spain Clay SF 6–4, 7–5
6. Brazil Gustavo Kuerten 2 Majorca, Spain Clay QF 7–5, 6–0
2003
7. Spain Juan Carlos Ferrero 3 Cincinnati, United States Hard 2R 6–7(5–7), 6–1, 6–4
2004
8. Spain Carlos Moyá 9 Barcelona, Spain Clay 3R 6–4, 6–4
9. Argentina David Nalbandian 8 French Open, Paris, France Clay SF 6–3, 7–6(7–5), 6–0
10. Argentina Guillermo Coria 3 French Open, Paris, France Clay F 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1, 8–6
2005
11. Russia Nikolay Davydenko 7 Stuttgart, Germany Clay SF 6–3, 2–1 r.
12. Argentina Mariano Puerta 10 ATP World Tour Finals, London, UK Hard (i) RR 6–3, 7–5

References

  1. ↑ "Temperley vibró con la conquista" (in Spanish). La Nación. 7 June 2004.
  2. ↑ "Tennis Feuds by Paul Fein". Sports Illustrated South Africa. 20 December 2006.
  3. ↑ "Old insult gives final edge by Linda Pearce". The Age. 6 June 2004.
  4. ↑ "Superbrat inspired French Open title miracle, says Gaudio". ABC Australia. 7 June 2004.
  5. ↑ "Gaudio finds faith at death". SMH. 8 June 2004.
  6. ↑ How do you find the fire to again reach the top?, ESPN, 31 May 2007
  7. ↑ The French Open's tradition of unlikely winners, World Tennis Magazine, 26 May 2012
  8. ↑ "Argie Bargy". BBC. 27 May 2008.
  9. ↑ "2008 End of Season Ranking". SteveGTennis. 31 January 2010.
  10. ↑ "2009 End of Season Ranking". SteveGTennis. 31 January 2010.
  11. 1 2 "El Gato En La Red". Telefe En Vivo. 9 May 2010.

External links

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