ARGENTINE WON, BUT NOT THE FAVORITE

French champ Gaudio no longer obscure
Gaston: 'I had some difficult moments. Now it's like revenge'
Coach Davin: 'Sometimes you have to go down a little, before you go up'

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred and Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

The surprise monarch of France: Gaston Gaudio.

FROM ROLAND GARROS – Relatively obscure players have won Grand Slam titles before, but no mid-career player with the mediocre credentials of Gaston Gaudio has won a Grand Slam title in the past 10 years.

That's what makes the 25-year-old Gaudio's ability to come back from two sets and two match points against his heavily favored countryman Guillermo Coria 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6 to win his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros all the more shocking. "It was like a movie," Gaudio said.

Pick your title: "Gladiator," "Braveheart" or how about "Everybody in Paris' All-Argentine," since if it wasn't for the crowd pleading him back into the match midway through the third set, his seemingly dead soul would have never awakened.

"It was real important to me because I was too nervous," Gaudio said of the unending wave that the crowd performed to wake themselves and Gaudio up at 3-4 in the third set. "After that I started to relax and tried to enjoy the moment. It worked."

It was the first time since Guga Kuerten won the title in Paris 1997 that an unseeded player raised the trophy, but the Brazilian was clearly an up-and-comer at the time. Gaudio was seen as a down-and-outer at home. He failed to come up big for Argentina in Davis Cup ties during the past two years and was called a choker. Prior to Roland Garros, Gaudio had never advanced beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam in six years on tour.

NOT MUCH OF A SPRING
His only real notable result this year was reaching the final in Barcelona in late April. After that, he bombed out of the important clay court Masters Series. But his coach, Franco Davin, believed that the work they had put in during the off season would pay off once the mental training that Gaudio did with a sports psychologist sank in.

"I told him at the end of the last year's clay court season that he needed to learn how to finish off points and that by this year's Roland Garros, he would learn to close," Davin said. "He also needed to get things straight in his personal life. I told him I want to see you in the Top 10 in the rankings at the end of 2004 Roland Garros. We changed a lot of thing in the off season mentally and physically, but sometimes you don't see the results immediately. Sometimes you have to go down a little, before you go up."

Gaudio came into Roland Garros ranked No. 44 with few expectations of going deep. He had only won one five-set match prior to this tournament, but in the first two rounds, discovered his fighting spirit, taking out countryman Guillermo Cañas and Jiri Novak in the five-setters.

"That's when he really began to gain confidence," said Davin. "After that he really began to show his game."

Then the second-week blitz was on, ending with a remarkable run through two-time Slam champ Lleyton Hewitt, '02 Wimbledon finalist and self-styled genius David Nalbandian and then the quickest man in tennis, Coria.

THE WAVE DROWNS GUILLERMO
In what will go down in history as one of the most dramatic and strangest Grand Slam finals ever, Coria appeared ready retire due to severe cramps in the fourth set. Coria – who had only lost two matches on clay in the past year prior to Sunday – looked all the part of a champ in the making in the first two sets, dancing about the court and rarely missing. A frozen Gaudio couldn't unleash his whizzing one-handed backhand or huge crosscourt forehand until the third set, when he began to find depth and consistency.

Then the wave came at 4-3 in the third, and while Gaudio smiled and played to crowd, Coria became a jumble of nerves. Gaudio won the third set and after the two held in the opening games of the fourth set, Coria's legs gave out and he called a medical time out. Even though he massaged and given a pill, Coria could barely walk. "I became nervous because it was new to me," said Coria. "I had the experience of other of other tournaments, but I couldn't control my nervousness. I've waited my whole life to win this tournament. It was the dream of my life so I fought to the end."

In the fifth set, Coria regained some of his movement, but he was unable to do any more than arm in his serves, and play down the middle with his ground strokes until he had a chance to go for outright winners. Gaudio's level went down as he was unsure of how to play against an injured opponent, but he stuck in there.

Coria was broken to 4-4 in the fifth set when he missed a forehand, which began a string of five straight breaks. He served for the match at 6-5 and held two match points, but couldn't take that extra half-step and missed a running backhand down the line and forehand down the line by inches. Gaudio then broke Coria to 6-6 and won the three-and-a-half-hour match when he nailed a forehand winner. Then he ran around the stadium high-fiving dozens of fans.

The forgotten journeyman and once despised Davis Cup gagger in Argentine tennis was reborn.

"It's 100 percent satisfaction, said Gaudio, who became the first Argentine since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win the title. "I had some difficult moments. Now it's like revenge. I worked and fought a lot. Maybe from now on I'm going to believe in myself more. This means everything to me."