.jpg) Gastón Gaudio in 2018 | |
| Country (sports) |  Argentina |
|---|---|
| Residence | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Born | (1978-12-09)9 December 1978 (age 46) |
| 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 (57.9%) |
| 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 (40.0%) |
| 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:[ɡasˈtoŋˈɡawðjo];[a] born 9 December 1978) is an Argentine former professionaltennis player. He won eight singles titles and achieved a career-highATP singles ranking of world No. 5 in April 2005. Gaudio's most significant championship came at the2004 French Open, when he defeated fellow ArgentineGuillermo Coria from two sets down in the final.
Gaudio learned the game at the Temperley Lawn Tennis Club, and his first coach wasRoberto Carruthers.[1] He was the youngest of 3 children in his family. 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]
Gaudio started playing tennis at the age of six. He finished as No. 2 in Argentine juniors in 1996 and turned professional the same year.
Gaudio finished as No. 2 junior in Argentina in 1996.[3] Gaudio was ranked at 639 in the world in 1997.[4]
In 1998 he reached fourATP Challenger finals during the second half of the year and won three of them. He won inElche with a victory over fellow ArgentineDiego Hipperdinger in July. He lost inBelo Horizonte to BrazilianFrancisco Costa, and won inSanta Cruz with a victory over EcuadorianLuis Morejón, both in August. He finished the year by winning inSantiago defeatingKarim Alami and ranked world No. 138.
Gaudio won two consecutive Challengers inNice andEspinho defeatingJacobo Díaz andMarkus 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 againstBernd Karbacher to win, then losing to world No. 6Àlex Corretja. He finished the year ranked No. 73.
2000 saw Gaudio establish himself on the main tour and win his only Challenger of the year inBraunschweig over countrymanFranco Squillari. In addition to his Challenger title, Gaudio made the semifinals inAuckland, Santiago and, in his most impressive performance of the season, theMonte Carlo Masters, where he defeatedMarat Safin,Félix Mantilla,Julien Boutter, andJuan Carlos Ferrero without dropping a set, before losing to Slovakia'sDominik Hrbatý in a tough three-set match. Gaudio also made the final ofStuttgart, again playing against fellow-ArgentineFranco Squillari. Gaudio lost the final in five sets despite having beaten his opponent soundly in the Gstaad quarterfinals and in theBraunschweig finals earlier in the year (both on clay) and leading Squillari 2 sets to 1 in Stuttgart. Gaudio also represented Argentina in his firstOlympic Games, losing toVladimir Voltchkov of Belarus in the first round. He finished the year ranked No. 34.
Gaudio started his 2001 in poor fashion, losing his first four matches of the season toVladimir Voltchkov, former French Open finalistAndrei Medvedev, three-time French Open winnerGustavo Kuerten, and, in hisDavis Cup debut, MexicanBruno Echagaray. Gaudio soon went back to his winning ways, however, reaching the final ofViña del Mar, losing to bitter rival and countrymanGuillermo Coria. Gaudio would avenge that defeat to Coria in a hard-fought victory in the quarterfinals ofBuenos Aires, which involved both players making rude gestures and insulting each other regularly. After this victory, Gaudio lost in the semifinals toJosé Acasuso. In the American hard-court swing after the2001 Australian Open, he made the quarterfinals of theMiami Masters, losing to 19th seedJan-Michael Gambill. Along the way, Gaudio dismantled fifth seed RussianYevgeny Kafelnikov, and toughed out a three-set slugfest against future French Open winner and 12th seedJuan Carlos Ferrero. 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 prestigiousMiami Masters). In addition to this, he helpedArgentina return to theWorld Group with a perfect 5–0 record in his singles matches, which were all played inArgentina 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.
Gaudio had a decent start to his 2002 campaign, making the third round of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of Indian Wells Masters as well as the round of 16 at Miami Masters. Continuing on from his successfulDavis Cup debut, in 2002 Gaudio defeatedIvo Karlović in the fifth match to secure a semifinal place for Argentina. Gaudio also won the first tournament of his career inBarcelona without dropping a set. Gaudio defeated world No. 1 andUS Open championLleyton Hewitt in the semifinals, and then dismissed Spaniard and French Open winner of the same yearAlbert Costa, in the final. Gaudio followed up his maiden title with another inMallorca a week later.
Gaudio made the fourth round of the French Open, losing toJuan Carlos Ferrero, in five sets, having led 4–1 in the final set. AfterRoland Garros, Gaudio made the final inGstaad and the semifinals inKitzbühel, losing on both occasions toÀlex Corretja. In theDavis Cup semifinals against Russia, Gaudio was leading 5–1 in the fifth set againstYevgeny 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. He finished the year ranked No. 21.
There were no titles for Gaudio in 2003, but he was involved in two controversies, the first of them involved compatriotGuillermo Coria in theHamburg Masters. They were part of an all-Argentine semifinal lineup, the others beingDavid Nalbandian andAgustín 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.[5]
The other was theDavis Cup in the semifinals against Spain inMálaga, where the two top Argentine playersGuillermo Coria andDavid Nalbandian were unavailable due to injury. An out-of-form Gaudio was called up along withAgustín Calleri,Mariano Zabaleta, andLucas Arnold. Although Gaudio had a 4–0 singles record from the first round and quarterfinals coming into the semifinals, Spain won 3–2, with Gaudio losing both of his singles matches. In the first rubber againstJuan Carlos Ferrero, he lost 14 games in a row in a 4–6, 0–6, 0–6 defeat. In the fifth and deciding rubber againstCarlos Moyà, he lost in straight sets and was roundly criticized 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.[6] He finished the year ranked No. 34.
2004 started slowly for Gaudio, but he eventually reached the final in Barcelona, losing toTommy Robredo in five sets, then posted two victories in theWorld Team Cup overMartin Verkerk andLleyton Hewitt.
Gaudio came into theFrench Open ranked 44th and was unseeded for the tournament. In the first round, he upset top-10 player and compatriotGuillermo Cañas over two days in five sets. Then he won another five-set match againstJiří Novák. Gaudio dropped only one more set en route to the final, as he defeatedThomas Enqvist,Igor Andreev,Lleyton Hewitt, andDavid Nalbandian to set up an unprecedented all-Argentine final with world No. 3, then-reigning "King of Clay", and pre-tournament favouriteGuillermo Coria.
In the final, Gaudio defeated Coria in five sets after Coria had served for the match at 6-5 in the fifth set and had two championship points.[7] Gaudio became the first Argentine to win aGrand Slam sinceGuillermo 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, the first man in the open era to win a Grand Slam having saved match points in the final.[8] Gaudio reached the top 10 in the ATP Entry rankings for the first time. Gaudio had achieved his childhood dream by winning atRoland Garros.[9] He stated that his father, Norberto, who overcame a life-threatening illness, as the biggest inspiration for him.
Gaudio would not reach another Grand Slam quarterfinal for the remainder of his career. In fact, the 2004 French Open was the only occasion he progressed past the fourth round of a grand slam tournament.[10][11]
Gaudio did not playWimbledon and returned to the tour in July. He made 3 finals in 3 weeks: inBåstad losing to his friendMariano Zabaleta, inStuttgart losing to compatriot Guillermo Cañas in 5 sets, and inKitzbühel losing toNicolás Massú. He also made his first appearance at theTennis Masters Cup, where he lost all 3 matches in the Round Robin stage. He finished the year ranked world No. 10. It was also a golden age in tennis for Argentina as an unprecedented 3 Argentine players finished in top 10 (Guillermo Coria finished No. 7,David Nalbandian finished No. 9).
Gaudio consolidated his top-10 ranking in 2005, by winning five tournaments and his record of 42–8 on clay is second only to Nadal. He also reached his career-high ranking of No. 5 in April.
Gaudio and Coria were at the centre of another dispute at theWorld 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."[12]
He lost in the fourth round ofRoland Garros toDavid 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 theTennis Masters Cup, where he made the semifinals, defeatingMariano Puerta andFernando González, but losing toNikolay Davydenko in the round-robin stage, before losing toRoger Federer, 0–6, 0–6, in the semifinals. He finished the year ranked world No. 10 for the second consecutive year. For the second consecutive year, 3 Argentines finished in the top 10 (Nalbandian finished No. 6, Coria finished No. 8).
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 inAcapulco and theMonte 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'sNikolay Davydenko. Gaudio lost at the second round in Wimbledon toIrakli Labadze (a qualifier) and lost his2006 US Open third-round match toMarc Gicquel.
Gaudio started 2007 poorly and lost eight consecutive matches stretching back to 2006, before recording a victory overLuis Horna, who retired from the match with a strainedhamstring. Gaudio followed up with a conventional win againstJuan Pablo Guzmán, before losing to former world No. 1Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarterfinals ofAcapulco. At the French Open, he won his first-round match againstMarc Gicquel (he lost to him the previous year) in five sets. He was to face former world No. 1,Lleyton Hewitt, seeded 14th for the tournament, and won the first two sets. Despite the lead, however, Hewitt fought back and won the next three sets, 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 theNapoli Challenger.
Gaudio only played two matches during the entire season. He came back in January 2008 at a Challenger event in Miami, Florida. He lost in the opening round, toKei 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 toSantiago Ventura, in the first round. He did not play another match for the remainder of the 2008 season.
Gaudio finished the 2008 season unranked[13] as a result of not winning a single match over a period of 12 months, causing his ranking points to fall to 0 by 22 September 2008.
In January, Gaudio reached the quarterfinals ofIquique Challenger, where he retired without completing a single game. It was his first match played after a few days short of an entire year.
In February 2009, he received a wild card into the main draw for theBuenos Aires tournament, an ATP World Tour 250 event in his home country. Gaudio lost toDaniel Gimeno Traver of Spain in the first round.
He received another wild card into the main draw in theBarcelona tournament, an ATP World Tour 500 event, where he won his first match on the world tour since the2007 French Open by defeatingDiego Junqueira ofArgentina, before losing his second-round match toTommy Robredo.
Gaudio won a tournament after almost four years at theTunis Challenger. He beat PortugueseFrederico Gil, in the final. Gaudio was awarded a wild card into the 2009 French Open, where he was beaten by CzechRadek Štěpánek in the first round. In October, he made the final of theBuenos Aires Challenger, losing to training partnerHoracio Zeballos.
Gaudio finished the 2009 season ranked at No. 167.[14]
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.[15] After a poor start in 2010, he won theSan Remo Challenger, defeating countrymanMartín Vassallo Argüello.
In an unlikely turn of events, Gaudio returned to the French Open to play in the qualifying. He posted an impressive victory over AmericanLester Cook in the first round but was taken out byThiago Alves in straight sets in his next match.
Gaudio announced his retirement from tennis on 30 August 2011,[15] although his last match played was on 2 August 2010 at theKitzbühel Challenger where he lost in the first round, more than a year prior.
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| Tournament | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | SR | W–L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | A | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 3R | 2R | 2R | 3R | 3R | 1R | A | A | A | A | 0 / 8 | 8–8 |
| French Open | A | A | A | 3R | 2R | 1R | 4R | 3R | W | 4R | 4R | 2R | A | 1R | Q2 | A | 1 / 10 | 22–9 |
| Wimbledon | A | Q1 | Q1 | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | 1R | A | A | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 6 | 2–6 |
| US Open | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | 3R | 1R | 2R | 1R | 3R | A | A | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 8 | 5–8 |
| Win–loss | 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 | 0–0 | 1 / 32 | 37–31 |
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 2004 | French Open | Clay | Guillermo Coria | 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1, 8–6 |
| Tournament | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | SR | W–L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATP World Tour Finals | Did not qualify | RR | SF | Did not qualify | 0 / 2 | 2–5 | ||||||||||||
| Time span | Selected Grand Slam tournament records | Players matched |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 French Open | Won a Grand Slam final from two sets down.[16] | Björn Borg Ivan Lendl Andre Agassi Dominic Thiem Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Jannik Sinner Carlos Alcaraz |
