Gaudio has reached his first Grand Slam tournament final in his 21st Grand Slam event. In his semifinal defeat of No. 8 seed David Nalbandian, Gaudio won the first set, but Nalbandian led 5-1 in the second. Gaudio won 12 of the next 13 games to seal victory 63 76 60.
Gaudio is bidding to become the first unseeded Roland Garros champion since Gustavo Kuerten in 1997. In the Open Era, Roland Garros has now seen nine unseeded finalists. Of the eight previous, two went on to become unseeded champions, Kuerten following in the path of Mats Wilander in 1982.
There has now been an unseeded men’s finalist at four of the most recent five Grand Slam events, starting with Martin Verkerk at Roland Garros last year. Since then, it has happened at 2003 Wimbledon (Mark Philippoussis) and the 2004 Australian Open (Marat Safin) ahead of here.
If he wins the final, Gaudio will be the fourth lowest-ranked man to win a Grand Slam title in Open Era history and the history of the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking.
Gaudio’s semifinal defeat of No. 8 David Nalbandian was his third victory over a seeded opponent at this event, and it improved his win-loss record against seeds at Grand Slam events to 5-6. Nalbandian is the highest seed he has defeated so far in his career. Before 2004 Roland Garros, Arnaud Clement, seeded No. 15 at the 2002 Australian Open, was the highest seed Gaudio had defeated at a major. Gaudio defeated Clement 64 46 62 76 in the second round there.
Before here, the round of 16 was the furthest Gaudio had ever advanced at a Grand Slam tournament, doing so at Roland Garros in 2002, when Hicham Arazi retired from their third round match with thigh cramps. Gaudio won 62 46 64 31 ret, then lost his round of 16 match to eventual runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero 67 61 67 62 64.
By reaching the Roland Garros semifinals, Gaudio bettered the Roland Garros record of his coach Franco Davin. Davin, also of Argentina, reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals in 1991, losing to Michael Stich 64 64 64.
This is Gaudio’s sixth successive appearance at Roland Garros. Last year he also advanced to the third round, losing at this stage to three-times champion Gustavo Kuerten 76 75 57 63.
This being Gaudio’s 21st Grand Slam tournament, no man has taken as long to reach his first Grand Slam final since Albert Costa advanced to the Roland Garros final in his 26th attempt in 2002. Costa, of course, went on to win the title.
If Gaudio wins the title today, he will have taken the eighth most attempts to win a Grand Slam title of any man in the Open Era. There are currently seven men who have taken more than 21 majors to win a Grand Slam title.
In 2002, when he reached the round of 16 here in his best Grand Slam performance before now, Gaudio entered Roland Garros with the year’s third-best clay court record (by number of match wins). His 16-2 record that year ranked behind only Carlos Moya (19-5) and Younes El Aynaoui (17-4). Additionally, Gaudio entered the tournament having won 13 of his 14 previous matches, collecting back-to-back titles at Barcelona and Mallorca.
Although his form coming into Roland Garros this year was not as impressive as two years ago, Gaudio has now assembled an eight-match winning streak, having won both the singles matches he played at World Team Cup (defeating Lleyton Hewitt 63 57 76 and Martin Verkerk 46 62 64) the week before this event.
Clay is the only surface on which Gaudio has won back-to-back matches this season. In addition to reaching the quarterfinals at Vina Del Mar, he advanced to the final at Barcelona in an impressive run which included victories over Carlos Moya in the round of 16 and Gustavo Kuerten in the quarters. He lost in the final to Tommy Robredo 63 46 62 36 63.
Gaudio played back-to-back five-setters in the first two rounds of 2004 Roland Garros, improving his five-set record to 3-9. He had previously won just one five-setter in ten played, that being his first, when he defeated Bernd Karbacher 67 46 63 61 64 in the second round here in 1999.
Gaudio has been working with a sports psychologist to learn to relax and enjoy playing his matches more.
Credits: www.atptennis.com
