Guillermo Coria

Guillermo Coria
Country (sports)  Argentina
Residence Venado Tuerto, Argentina
Born (1982-01-13) 13 January 1982
Rufino, Argentina
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro 2000
Retired 28 April 2009
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money $5,817,486
Singles
Career record 216–106
Career titles 9
Highest ranking No. 3 (3 May 2004)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 4R (2003, 2005)
French Open F (2004)
Wimbledon 4R (2005)
US Open QF (2003, 2005)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals RR (2003, 2004, 2005)
Doubles
Career record 9–22
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 183 (1 March 2004)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 1R (2003)
Wimbledon 1R (2004)

Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed El Mago (The Magician in Spanish), is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina who was runner-up at the 2004 French Open and a former world no. 3. He was named after tennis champion and compatriot Guillermo Vilas.

Career

1999–2002

As a junior, Coria won the boy's singles title at the 1999 French Open by beating his friend and fellow Argentine, David Nalbandian in straight sets in the final. One month later at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, Coria and Nalbandian teamed up to win the boy's doubles title by beating Todor Enev and Jarkko Nieminen.

Coria turned professional in 2000, finishing 2003, 2004, and 2005 as a top-10 player. He was one of the fastest players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour, consistently showing great performances in clay-court tournaments. His playing style was that of a counter-puncher.

Coria tested positive for nandrolone in April 2001 after a match in Barcelona against Michel Kratochvil. Coria was initially banned from tennis for two years, starting in August 2001, and was fined $98,565. Coria claimed that the only supplement that he was taking was a multivitamin made by a New Jersey supplements company. His family employed a private lab to test the multivitamin, which was found to be contaminated with steroids. In December 2001, the ATP refused to acquit Coria, but reduced his ban from two years to seven months, which meant that he would be free to continue with his tennis career in March 2002. Coria sued the New Jersey supplements company for more than $10 million in lost prize money and endorsements and settled after the third day of the trial for an undisclosed amount.[1]

As a result of the seven months during which Coria was banned from playing tennis, his world ranking dropped from world no. 32 to world no. 97. 2002 was, therefore, a rebuilding year for Coria, and he finished 2002 ranked at world no. 45.

2003: Dominance on clay begins

Coria signalled his arrival as a world class clay-court player in 2003 by reaching the finals in Buenos Aires, where he lost a tight best-of-three-sets match to Carlos Moyá, and at the Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost in two straight sets to Juan Carlos Ferrero. Coria went on to win his first Masters Series title at the 2003 Hamburg Masters by defeating Agustín Calleri in the final in three straight sets.

At the 2003 French Open, Coria defeated Andre Agassi in four sets in the quarterfinals, before suffering an upset loss to Martin Verkerk and his booming serves in the semifinals. In July 2003, Coria was increasingly establishing himself as the new king of clay by winning three clay-court tournaments in three weeks, the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, the Generali Open in Kitzbühel and the Orange Prokom Open in Sopot. He won these three tournaments without dropping a set, dishing out five bagels and eight breadsticks in the process.

2004: King of Clay, French Open Final

In 2004, Coria won the clay-court tournament in Buenos Aires and reached the final of the 2004 NASDAQ-100 Open on hard court, where he faced Andy Roddick. From the first set onwards, Coria was visibly hurt by pains in his back that later turned out to be kidney stones. Coria still managed to win the first set 7–6, but Roddick won the next two sets 6–3, 6–1, before Coria retired during the first game of the fourth set.

Three weeks later, Coria defeated Rainer Schüttler in three straight sets in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters to win his second Masters Series title. Coria had now won five consecutive clay-court tournaments and had gone 26 consecutive matches unbeaten on clay. On 3 May 2004, Coria reached a career-high ranking of world no. 3. In attempting to defend his title at the Hamburg Masters, Coria increased his clay-court winning streak to 31 matches by reaching the final, where he lost to world no. 1 Roger Federer in four sets.

At the 2004 French Open, Coria reached the final, defeating Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Mónaco, Mario Ančić and Nicolas Escudé, before beating former world no. 1, Carlos Moyá, in the quarterfinals and British serve-and-volleyer, Tim Henman, in the semifinals; but he was unexpectedly defeated by unseeded compatriot Gastón Gaudio in an unprecedented all-Argentine final, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 1–6, 6–8. Coria had won the first two sets convincingly and was in control of the third set at 4–4 and 40–0 up on serve, before Gaudio broke Coria's serve and went on to take the third set. Coria then succumbed to leg cramps early in the fourth set, and was barely able to move at times, with many of his serves in the fourth set not even reaching the net. Despite this, Coria still managed to get the advantage at several stages of the fifth set, leading by a break of serve on four separate occasions, including twice serving for the championship at 5–4 and 6–5. The latter game saw him narrowly miss the line with attempted winners on two championship points, making him the only male player in the open era to lose a Grand Slam singles final having held a championship point. Many fans and pundits agree that Coria was never the same player after the loss.

Coria surprised some people by reaching the first grass-court final of his career at 's-Hertogenbosch, losing the final to Michaël Llodra. This was only two weeks after the devastation of losing the French Open final. Coria then went on to defeat Wesley Moodie in a five-set match in the first round of Wimbledon, which took nearly three days to complete after the start of the match, as a result of rain and poor scheduling. Coria lost in four sets in the second round to Florian Mayer and got a bad injury to his right shoulder during the match. In August 2004, Coria had surgery on his right shoulder. He returned to the ATP tour in November for the Masters Cup, where he performed poorly.

2005: Two Masters Finals & service yips

Coria appeared in five finals after the 2004 French Open defeat and lost four of them, the most famous of which being the fifth set tiebreak loss to the rising king of clay, Rafael Nadal, in the 2005 Rome Masters final. He had led 3–0 with a double break and game point in the deciding set. The only final Coria won was on 31 July 2005, when he won in Umag, Croatia, defeating Carlos Moyá in the final. Afterwards, Coria joked that the small tournament was considered a fifth Grand Slam in his family, because his wife Carla hails from Croatia. Coria had a surprisingly consistent 2005 season, where he was one of only three players to reach the fourth round or better at every Grand Slam, the others being Roger Federer and David Nalbandian.

Despite having a consistent season in 2005, during his tournament victory in Umag he started to suffer from the service yips, a psychological condition that renders a tennis player unable to hit the ball at the correct moment when serving. At first, it wasn't really noticeable, but it really came to light during the 2005 US Open, when Coria served a combined 34 double faults in his fourth-round win over Nicolás Massú and his quarterfinal loss to Robby Ginepri. Against Ginepri, having already saved five match points, Coria was serving to take the match into a fifth set tiebreaker, when two consecutive double faults from deuce gave Ginepri the win.

As the 2005 season drew to a close, Coria's form started to dip alarmingly as a result of the high number of double faults he was serving in an increasing number of his matches. Coria lost 9 of his last 11 matches of 2005. Some pundits have also speculated that his three losses in finals to the emerging Nadal may have hit his confidence worse than the loss to Gaudio.[2]

2006–2009

Coria's service yips got increasingly worse in 2006, although he still managed to reach the third round of the 2006 Australian Open and managed a victory over Novak Djokovic at the 2006 Miami Masters without serving any double faults.

At the 2006 Monte Carlo Masters, Coria came back from 1–6, 1–5 down to defeat Paul-Henri Mathieu, despite serving 20 double faults in the match. Coria then defeated Nicolas Kiefer, despite serving 22 double faults, but he was then easily beaten by Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. After Monte Carlo, Coria wins generally became fewer and further between, although he did manage a semifinal in Amersfoort in July 2006.

Coria withdrew from the 2006 French Open and 2006 Wimbledon as he attempted to sort out marital problems, problems with his game, and an elbow injury. In August 2006, he hired Horacio de la Peña as his tennis coach. At the 2006 US Open, Coria retired in his first-round match against Ryan Sweeting after just five games. It would be 17 months before Coria played a match on the ATP tour again.

Coria made his return in a Challenger in Belo Horizonte, Brazil on 22 October 2007. He lost the first set 3–6 to fellow Argentine Juan Pablo Brzezicki and subsequently retired with a back injury. He had been leading in the first set 3–1.

Coria finally returned to the main ATP circuit in the Movistar Open in Chile on 28 January 2008. He showed positive signs of recovering his form, but was still defeated in the first round by Pablo Cuevas, 4–6, 6–3, 3–6.

In February, in his second ATP Circuit appearance of the year, Coria defeated Italian qualifier Francesco Aldi, 6–4 7–5. It was his first ATP victory in 19 months.

As a result of Andy Roddick's withdrawal from the 2008 French Open due to a back injury, Coria made his first Grand Slam appearance since the 2006 US Open, taking the place of the American. He faced Tommy Robredo, the three-time quarterfinalist and 12th seed, in the first round. Coria was defeated in four sets, 7–5, 4–6, 1–6, 4–6, but Coria's performance led to some optimism, even from Coria himself, who was close to forcing a fifth set.

Coria never managed to recover from the service yips that damaged his game and kept his ranking hundreds of places below his once top-10 position. On 28 April 2009, he announced his retirement from professional tennis, saying that he "didn’t feel like competing anymore."[3]

Playing style

Coria was known as a very solid baseliner and an excellent claycourter. He had excellent speed, penetrating and balanced groundstroke capabilities and frequently utilised drop shots.[4] His comparatively weak serve was noted during the late stages of his career, where Coria would make numerous double faults, often resorting to hitting a severely underpowered second serve to avoid this.[5] Whilst his small size and relative lack of power meant he didn't have any big, stand-out weapons, Coria had excellent consistency and court craft which enabled him to become a top player, especially on clay courts.

Private life

Coria attended preschool with David Nalbandian in Argentina. He is a well known River Plate fan. Coria married Carla Francovigh on 27 December 2003. They have a son named Thiago, born on 12 April 2012.[6][7] A daughter, Defina, was born on 4 October 2013.[8]

As of 2010, Coria was coaching his younger brother Federico.

Equipment

Coria used the Prince O3 Tour. His racquet was strung with Luxilon Big Banger Original 16 String. His clothing sponsor was Adidas.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 2004 French Open Clay Argentina Gastón Gaudio 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 1–6, 6–8

Masters Series finals

Singles: 7 (2–5)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 2003 Monte Carlo Clay Spain Juan Carlos Ferrero2–6, 2–6
Winner 2003 Hamburg Clay Argentina Agustín Calleri 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up 2004 Miami Hard United States Andy Roddick 7–6(2), 3–6, 1–6, retired
Winner 2004 Monte Carlo Clay Germany Rainer Schüttler 6–2, 6–1, 6–3
Runner-up 2004 Hamburg Clay Switzerland Roger Federer 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 3–6
Runner-up 2005 Monte Carlo Clay Spain Rafael Nadal 3–6, 1–6, 6–0, 5–7
Runner-up 2005 Rome Clay Spain Rafael Nadal4–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–4, 6–7(6)

Career finals

Singles (9)

Wins
Legend
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup /
ATP World Tour Finals (0)
ATP Masters Series /
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (2)
ATP International Series Gold /
ATP World Tour 500 Series (2)
ATP International Series /
ATP World Tour 250 Series (5)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0)
Clay (8)
Grass (0)
Carpet (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 12 February 2001 Viña del Mar, Chile Clay Argentina Gastón Gaudio 4–6, 6–2, 7–5
2. 12 May 2003 Hamburg, Germany Clay Argentina Agustín Calleri 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
3. 14 July 2003 Stuttgart, Germany Clay Spain Tommy Robredo 6–2, 6–2, 6–1
4. 21 July 2003 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Chile Nicolás Massú 6–1, 6–4, 6–2
5. 28 July 2003 Sopot, Poland Clay Spain David Ferrer 7–5, 6–1
6. 12 October 2003 Basel, Switzerland Carpet (i) Argentina David Nalbandian walkover
7. 16 February 2004 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Spain Carlos Moyá 6–4, 6–1
8. 19 April 2004 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay Germany Rainer Schüttler 6–2, 6–1, 6–3
9. 31 July 2005 Umag, Croatia Clay Spain Carlos Moyá 6–2, 4–6, 6–2
Runners-up (11)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1. 7 May 2001 Majorca, Spain Clay Spain Alberto Martín 3–6, 6–3, 2–6
2. 16 September 2002 Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil Hard Brazil Gustavo Kuerten 7–6(4), 5–7, 6–7(2)
3. 24 February 2003 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Spain Carlos Moyá 3–6, 6–4, 4–6
4. 21 April 2003 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay Spain Juan Carlos Ferrero 2–6, 2–6
5. 5 April 2004 Miami, USA Hard United States Andy Roddick 7–6(2), 3–6, 1–6, retired
6. 17 May 2004 Hamburg, Germany Clay Switzerland Roger Federer 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 3–6
7. 7 June 2004 French Open, Paris, France Clay Argentina Gastón Gaudio 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 1–6, 6–8
8. 21 June 2004 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Grass France Michaël Llodra 3–6, 4–6
9. 18 April 2005 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay Spain Rafael Nadal 3–6, 1–6, 6–0, 5–7
10. 9 May 2005 Rome, Italy Clay Spain Rafael Nadal 4–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–4, 6–7(6)
11. 19 September 2005 Beijing, China Hard Spain Rafael Nadal 7–5, 1–6, 2–6

Career statistics

Singles performance timeline

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Career
WR 		Career
Win-Loss
Australian Open A 2R A 4R 1R 4R 3R A A 0 / 5 9–5
French Open 2R 1R 3R SF F 4R A A 1R 0 / 7 17–7
Wimbledon A 1R A 1R 2R 4R A A A 0 / 4 4–4
U.S. Open LQ A 3R QF A QF 1R A A 0 / 5 10–4
Grand Slam Win Ratio 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 2 0 / 0 0 / 1 0 / 21 N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss 1–1 1–3 2–2 12–4 7–3 13–4 2–2 0–0 0–1 N/A 40–20
Indian Wells Masters A A A 3R QF 4R A A A 0 / 3 7–3
Miami Masters A 3R 3R 4R F 3R 3R A A 0 / 6 13–6
Monte Carlo Masters A SF 1R F W F QF A A 1 / 6 23–5
Rome Masters A 2R A 3R A F 1R A A 0 / 4 8–4
Hamburg Masters A A A W F QF 1R A A 1 / 4 14–3
Canada Masters A A A 1R 1R 1R A A A 0 / 3 0–3
Cincinnati Masters A 1R 2R QF A 2R A A A 0 / 4 5–4
Madrid Masters A A LQ A A 3R A A A 0 / 2 1–1
Paris Masters A A 1R 3R A 2R A A A 0 / 3 1–2
Tennis Masters Cup A A A RR RR RR A A A 0 / 3 1–8
ATP Tournaments Played 4 16 16 21 15 23 14 0 8 N/A 117
ATP Finals Reached 0 2 1 7 6 4 0 0 0 N/A 20
ATP Tournaments Won 0 1 0 5 2 1 0 0 0 N/A 9
Hard Win-Loss 1–1 3–3 13–8 17–10 12–10 19–13 3–3 0–0 0–0 N/A 68–47
Clay Win-Loss 2–3 23–11 9–7 38–5 22–2 30–6 8–11 0–0 2–8 N/A 135–56
Carpet Win-Loss 0–0 0–0 0–1 5–0 0–0 1–5 0–0 0–0 0–0 N/A 6–6
Grass Win-Loss 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–1 5–3 5–3 0–0 0–0 0–0 N/A 10–8
Overall Win-Loss 3–4 26–15 22–16 60–16 39–14 55–27 11–14 0–0 2–8 N/A 219–117
Year End Ranking 88 44 45 5 7 8 116 1363 577 N/A N/A

LQ = lost in qualifying draw WR = Win Ratio, the ratio of tournaments won to those played A = Did not play in tournament

References

  1. ↑ Yahoo! Sports – Sports News, Scores, Rumors, Fantasy Games, and more Archived 1 January 1970 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "The end of Guillermo Coria". tennistalk.com.
  3. ↑ "Guillermo Coria Retires From Tennis at 27". The Tennis Times. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Nadal fights fatigue and blisters to beat Coria in five-hour epic", The Independent, 9 May 2005.
  5. ↑ "Doubles faults send Coria crashing", CNN, 27 April 2006.
  6. ↑ "Guillermo, Carla, Thiago", Twitter, April 2012
  7. ↑ "Thiago, Carla et Guillermo Coria", Blog de Familledesport, September 2012
  8. ↑ http://radiosonica929.com.ar/guillermo-coria-presenta-a-delfina-su-beba-de-tres-meses-mira-las-fotos/

External links

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