tacou
G.O.A.T.
TLDR: The yips are weird!! What do you think a 25-30 year old Coria would have done, particularly on clay, during his prime years, assuming his serve had not deserted him and he'd followed a relatively normal career path (keep in mind he was a consistent top 5-10 player and top 3-4 on clay when he fell apart, and only 24 years old)?
Most tennis fans know Coria, he's a former No. 3 and slam finalist, not a deep cut. At the very least, fans have heard of the 04 French Open final vs. Gaudio. However, it's rarely mentioned that Coria reached his first final on grass just a couple weeks after that devastating loss, reached 4 additional finals (def. Moya in Umag, lost 3 to Nadal) over the next season or so, and in 2005 joined Federer and Nalbandian as the only players on tour to reach the 4th round or better at all four majors (finished the year at no. 8).
In fact, four consecutive faults prevented Guillermo from reaching a deciding TB at the USO vs. Robbie Ginepri, with the winner advancing to the SF vs. a depleted Agassi. Now, Coria has to NOT df twice, win the TB, and beat Agassi (who survived a 5 setter with Ginepri, iirc) but it's crazy how close he was to another major SF or F, off of clay, more than a year after the loss many credit as having ended his career.
Coria was improving on hard court (and to a lesser extent grass) and had seemingly recovered from whatever mental funk the French Open final might have instilled in him. From 2003-2005, Coria was 90-13 on clay, including a 31 match win streak.
But towards the end of 2005, aged just 24, Coria went on a 2-9 slide, characterized by a ton of double faults. In 2006, he went 11-14, then 0-2 for the rest of his career.
Coria's case is very peculiar. Many associate him with the FO choke, but that really didn't seem to impact his play much. Others have asserted that Nadal's rise to dominance on clay did him in, and while I think there could be something to that, I don't see how how Guillermo could battle him so well in Rome and Monte Carlo, or why his form would start to seriously dip away from clay (HC/indoor season in 05), where he was not facing Nadal. Also, Coria won the tournament in which his service problems began, 2005 Umag, and won numerous matches despite serving TONS of dfs (notably one against Kiefer in which he served close to or more than 30 DFs in just TWO sets!!) -- so he really does not seem like a mentally weak player, more like a player suffering from an uncontrollable glitch.
So, if Coria had never been troubled by the yips, what does 2006-2011 look like for him? I think he'd have become more dangerous than Ferrer and much more consistent than Verdasco. Don't see him getting more than the odd clay Masters win over Nadal, Novak, or Fed, though he could have been a strong no. 4 on the surface and played a role in several memorable RG matches. I also think his HC game would have continued to develop and he probably would have stayed in the top 10 until 2009 or so.
Most tennis fans know Coria, he's a former No. 3 and slam finalist, not a deep cut. At the very least, fans have heard of the 04 French Open final vs. Gaudio. However, it's rarely mentioned that Coria reached his first final on grass just a couple weeks after that devastating loss, reached 4 additional finals (def. Moya in Umag, lost 3 to Nadal) over the next season or so, and in 2005 joined Federer and Nalbandian as the only players on tour to reach the 4th round or better at all four majors (finished the year at no. 8).
In fact, four consecutive faults prevented Guillermo from reaching a deciding TB at the USO vs. Robbie Ginepri, with the winner advancing to the SF vs. a depleted Agassi. Now, Coria has to NOT df twice, win the TB, and beat Agassi (who survived a 5 setter with Ginepri, iirc) but it's crazy how close he was to another major SF or F, off of clay, more than a year after the loss many credit as having ended his career.
Coria was improving on hard court (and to a lesser extent grass) and had seemingly recovered from whatever mental funk the French Open final might have instilled in him. From 2003-2005, Coria was 90-13 on clay, including a 31 match win streak.
But towards the end of 2005, aged just 24, Coria went on a 2-9 slide, characterized by a ton of double faults. In 2006, he went 11-14, then 0-2 for the rest of his career.
Coria's case is very peculiar. Many associate him with the FO choke, but that really didn't seem to impact his play much. Others have asserted that Nadal's rise to dominance on clay did him in, and while I think there could be something to that, I don't see how how Guillermo could battle him so well in Rome and Monte Carlo, or why his form would start to seriously dip away from clay (HC/indoor season in 05), where he was not facing Nadal. Also, Coria won the tournament in which his service problems began, 2005 Umag, and won numerous matches despite serving TONS of dfs (notably one against Kiefer in which he served close to or more than 30 DFs in just TWO sets!!) -- so he really does not seem like a mentally weak player, more like a player suffering from an uncontrollable glitch.
So, if Coria had never been troubled by the yips, what does 2006-2011 look like for him? I think he'd have become more dangerous than Ferrer and much more consistent than Verdasco. Don't see him getting more than the odd clay Masters win over Nadal, Novak, or Fed, though he could have been a strong no. 4 on the surface and played a role in several memorable RG matches. I also think his HC game would have continued to develop and he probably would have stayed in the top 10 until 2009 or so.
