Gastón Gaudio

Gastón Norberto Gaudio (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡasˈtoŋ ˈɡawðjo]; born 9 December 1978) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He won eight singles titles and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 5 in April 2005. Gaudio's most significant championship came at the 2004 French Open, when he defeated fellow Argentine Guillermo Coria from two sets down in the final.

Early life

Gaudio learned the game at the Temperley Lawn Tennis Club, and his first coach was Roberto Carruthers. 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.

Tennis career

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.

1996-1997

Gaudio finished as No. 2 junior in Argentina in 1996. Gaudio was ranked at 639 in the world in 1997.

1998: Top 150

In 1998 he reached four ATP Challenger finals during the second half of the year and won three of them. He won in Elche with a victory over fellow Argentine Diego Hipperdinger in July. He lost in Belo Horizonte to Brazilian Francisco Costa, and won in Santa Cruz with a victory over Ecuadorian Luis Morejón, both in August. He finished the year by winning in Santiago defeating Karim Alami and ranked world No. 138.