Gaston Gaudio

The man who last won the French Open men’s singles title before Rafael Nadal’s stranglehold as well as the success of other players like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, Gaston Gaudio only ever won a sole Grand Slam title. However, the Argentine was a consistent presence on the tour and, through the course of his career, won 11 titles – 8 in the singles division and the remaining 3 in the men’s doubles. However, none of those doubles titles came in a Grand Slam. Nevertheless, he registered a total of 296 career wins in the matches he played – 270 came in singles, whereas 26 came in doubles.

Early in his life, Gaudio played three major sports; aside from tennis, he played football and rugby. However, his reason for picking tennis is an interesting one. He decided to pursue a full-time career in the sport to help his parents, whose business had run into financial issues. In 1996, he was the second-highest ranked junior in Argentina and turned pro the same year.

Gaudio would steadily work himself up the rankings from then onwards, and by 2001 was ranked 34th in the ATP rankings. However, a poor year on tour saw him slip down the rankings – by the end of the year, he was 48th. The main reason for this was a number of first-round losses: he suffered 12 of them, including in all four Grand Slams. However, things looked up significantly in 2002 – he won his first major ATP title at Barcelona, a feat he pulled off without dropping a set. He followed that up with another title win at Mallorca.

2003 saw another year go by without a title but in 2004 he won his maiden Grand Slam at Roland Garros. He came into the tournament unseeded due to his ranking but stunned everyone by making the final. There he met compatriot Guillermo Coria, at that time the reigning ‘King of Clay’. In a final for the ages, Gaudio went down two sets but rallied to win the next three. He thus became the first Argentine Slam winner since Guillermo Villas in 1979.

Five more titles would follow in singles tennis, all of which came in 2005. After that he did not scale these heights and would announce his retirement in 2011. Injuries did not help his cause during this time, as he struggled to get his career back on track after unfortunately-timed injuries. His retirement came nearly a year after his final match in 2010.

Gaudio’s main strength was playing on the baseline, where he could both punch on the up or retrieve balls from deep. His favoured shot was a top-spin heavy forehand or a single-hand backhand which was extremely elegant to watch.

He didn’t often take up the option of volleying from the net but when he did so it was an extremely effective way for him to get some points. His service game wasn’t extremely strong, which didn’t matter as much on the slower clay courts but was often his undoing elsewhere.

Australian Open – made it to the third round in 2002, 2005 and 2006
French Open – won in 2004
Wimbledon – made it to the second round in 2002 and 2006
US Open – made it to the third round in 2002 and 2006