Guillermo Coria

[Mustard]

I have been watching some of Guillermo Coria's matches from 2003 over the last week, which were his Round of 16 match against a 16 year old Nadal from 2003 Monte Carlo, and his semi final and final matches against Gaudio and Calleri on his way to winning the 2003 Hamburg title. They are great matches to watch, and tennis really misses his presence in today's game.

Here is a clip on youtube of Coria winning 2003 Hamburg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw414AxRxws

[Gizo]

Coria was a great player to watch with tremendous court craft and speed. I personally think that he had the best and most elegant drop shots I've ever seen.

One of the best performances I saw from him was his 6-2 6-2 6-1 demolition of Robredo in the Stuttgart final later that year. His thrashing of Massu in the Kitzbuhel final a week later was almost as good. In fact he won 32 sets out of 32 during that Stuttgart-Kitzbuhel-Sopot three-peat in 2003.

A very underrated match that he played in was his 4 hour 41 minute R4 5 set tussle against Zabaleta at RG in 2003, which was interrupted by the darkness and completed over 2 days.

[Q&M son]

Was one of "my" players...
Se te extraña Mago!!

[BeHappy]

His 2005 Rome final versus Nadal is the best clay court match ever.

He and Gaudio were such a terrible loss to the sport. They could actually push Nadal, Federer couldn't because of the high backhand weakness Nadal was perfectly designed to exploit.

Not to mention Kuerten, at 26 he was basically retired.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Gizo

Coria was a great player to watch with tremendous court craft and speed. I personally think that he had the best and most elegant drop shots I've ever seen.

One of the best performances I saw from him was his 6-2 6-2 6-1 demolition of Robredo in the Stuttgart final later that year. His thrashing of Massu in the Kitzbuhel final a week later was almost as good. In fact he won 32 sets out of 32 during that Stuttgart-Kitzbuhel-Sopot three-peat in 2003.

A very underrated match that he played in was his 4 hour 41 minute R4 5 set tussle against Zabaleta at RG in 2003, which was interrupted by the darkness and completed over 2 days.

Yes, agreed. Coria also had a lot of fantastic, hardfought matches at the masters series clay-court events between 2003 and 2005. 2004 Miami as well.

[dunlop_fort_knox]

it's too bad he was doping. it's too bad his body broke down at later stages of big tournaments.

[pjonesy]

Coria is an excellent example of talent overriding structural limitation. Coria is short, probably the same size as Ferrer, but a more talented player. Specifically on clay, he just defends and constructs points more effectively. Or at least he DID.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by dunlop_fort_knox

it's too bad he was doping. it's too bad his body broke down at later stages of big tournaments.

Coria got a lot of compensation after suing the supplements company for not listing nandrolone on the label.

[Gonzalito17]

Coria was the king of clay that one year, clearly the dominant force on clay. But he screwed himself in the RG final vs. Gaudio. Coria was killing Gaudio, who he had owned previously, for two sets then the third was close and at the end of the third the fans did the "wave" for like two minutes and it totally relaxed Gaudio who smiled and loosened up waiting for the crowd to stop the wave. When they stopped, Gaudio was a new player. he stole the third set, then Coria faked in injury in the fourth set. Earlier that year the two almost got into a fight in Hamburg because Gaudio accused Coria of faking an injury so this was a case of Coria giving Gaudio the finger. The injury miraculously disappeared in the beginning of the fifth set but Gaudio was relaxed and pumped up now and it became a battle. Match points saved. Gaudio finally won it, MCEnroe called it the biggest miracle he ever saw in a major final. Coria was never the same after this. He arrogantly gave away the fourth set and blew his one big chance at a major. Next year Nadal emerged and took over the clay courts. Coria's career went into a tailspin, no doubt because of regret for his idiotic ploy vs. Gaudio which blew up in his face.

But Coria was a great player, incredible consistency and technique. Machine like. He was the BEST. But then Nadal came and it was over for him. He had his one big chance, the French Open trophy was in his hand...but he blew it and let it get away.

[borg number one]

I saw him playing in Houston at the US Court Championships, which were played on red clay at Westside Tennis Club. He was super quick and consistent, with great movement and real nice form. Very light on his feet. He was a very good player back then and I was thinking man this guy can play and is going to be a threat out here. That may have been 2002, the year that Roddick won it and beat Sampras in the final.

[pjonesy]

Originally Posted by Mustard

Coria got a lot of compensation after suing the supplements company for not listing nandrolone on the label.

I didn't know that, Mustard. Good for him, if he was legitimately unaware. It's hard to trust professional athletes these days.

[Goosehead]

that french open final in 2004 was surreal, watching it at the time or a couple of months back on youtube,

long rallies on coria's championship points...coria at least lost the match points going for clear winners that just missed but really

...OH NOO.000OOOOoooooooooooo00ooo..

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Gonzalito17

Coria was the king of clay that one year, clearly the dominant force on clay. But he screwed himself in the RG final vs. Gaudio. Coria was killing Gaudio, who he had owned previously, for two sets then the third was close and at the end of the third the fans did the "wave" for like two minutes and it totally relaxed Gaudio who smiled and loosened up waiting for the crowd to stop the wave. When they stopped, Gaudio was a new player. he stole the third set, then Coria faked in injury in the fourth set. Earlier that year the two almost got into a fight in Hamburg because Gaudio accused Coria of faking an injury so this was a case of Coria giving Gaudio the finger. The injury miraculously disappeared in the beginning of the fifth set but Gaudio was relaxed and pumped up now and it became a battle. Match points saved. Gaudio finally won it, MCEnroe called it the biggest miracle he ever saw in a major final. Coria was never the same after this. He arrogantly gave away the fourth set and blew his one big chance at a major. Next year Nadal emerged and took over the clay courts. Coria's career went into a tailspin, no doubt because of regret for his idiotic ploy vs. Gaudio which blew up in his face.

But Coria was a great player, incredible consistency and technique. Machine like. He was the BEST. But then Nadal came and it was over for him. He had his one big chance, the French Open trophy was in his hand...but he blew it and let it get away.

You seriously think that Coria just threw away the fourth set? Madness.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Goosehead

that french open final in 2004 was surreal, watching it at the time or a couple of months back on youtube,

long rallies on coria's championship points...coria at least lost the match points going for clear winners that just missed but really

...OH NOO.000OOOOoooooooooooo00ooo..

Yeah, absolutely gutting.

Coria has to be amongst the most unluckiest players of all time, really:

1999: Wins the French Open junior singles title, and Wimbledon junior doubles title.

2000: Coria's start on the main tour. He plays 4 main tour events, including the French Open.

2001: Tested positive for nandrolone in April and banned for 2 years as of August. Coria's ranking was around the 30 mark in this period. In December, a private lab shows the supplement he was taking was contaminated with nandrolone without listing it on the label. Coria sues the company, and years later, gets compensation.

2002: Is still banned for the first 3 months of the year, as the ATP reduced his ban from 2 years to 7 months rather than acquit him. He has to rebuild his ranking after missing out on 7 months.

2003: The only year of his career where he was playing excellent on the court and didn't have negative distractions off the court. He was in the ascendency as a player, particularly on clay. He won 5 tournaments in the year, including a Masters Series event in Hamburg, and winning 3 tournaments in 3 weeks without dropping a set from mid July to early August. He also got married in December 2003. The only real negative of the year was losing to Verkerk in the French Open semi finals.

2004: A mixed year. The high points included reaching the 2004 Miami final after twice coming back from the dead against Benneteau and Gonzalez, as well as increasing his clay-court reputation all the more by comfortably winning Buenos Aires and Monte Carlo, and fighting hard to win very tight matches in Hamburg against Almagro, Horna and Ljubicic, until Federer beat him to end the 31-match clay-court win streak. The lows included the crushing French Open final loss to Gaudio, and getting a shoulder injury at Wimbledon and needing surgery in August, forcing him to miss 3 months.

2005: Another mixed year. A very consistent year across all surfaces, one of only three players to reach at least the R16 at all 4 majors, great finals against a rising Nadal, particularly in Rome, but Coria lost them all. Coria clearly wasn't playing with the same swagger and confidence as before. Starting in July, the service yips starts becoming a major obstacle to his game. By the end of the year, with his results starting to go into freefall, it's clear that he has a problem.

2006: Coria's service yips problems get worse and worse, with only the occasional respite. Despite his problems, he managed a third round at the Australian Open and a quarter final in Monte Carlo, where he was winning matches despite serving 20+ double faults. His results then went well down, and after a first round retirement at the US Open, he was gone from the main tour for some time.

2007-2009: Sporadic returns, on both the challenger circuit and the main tour, including a final French Open appearance in 2008 after Roddick's withdrawal, but barely won any matches. Service yips problems still plagued his game. He retires in April 2009.

He also went through 11 coaches:
Gustavo Luza
Mariano Monachesi
Franco Davin
Alberto Mancini
Fabian Blengino
Gabriel Markus
Jose Perlas
Jose Higueras
Horacio De La Pena
Hernan Gumy
Martin Rodriguez

[mikeler]

Originally Posted by Mustard

You seriously think that Coria just threw away the fourth set? Madness.

The announcers seemed to think it just took time for the medicine to take effect. It was pretty suspicious that he was limping around that last game of the 4th set and then looked spry as a rabbit the first game of the 5th.