I thought it was an interesting article about Gaston. Too bad he
lost to Nadal but he played well so maybe he will have a good clay
court season this year too. :) I think he need many people to
cheer him and support him to play well.


http://www.sportsmediainc.com/tennisweek/index.cfm?
func=showarticle&newsid=15155&bannerregion=

Gaudio Seeks Stability Between The Ears


Photo By Fred Mullane By Tennis Week
04/21/2006



The shadow stuck so closely to Gaston Gaudio that the seventh-seeded
Argentine and his faithful follower looked tighter than tango
partners at times during today's Tennis Master Series-Monte Carlo
quarterfinals.



The shadowy self that sometimes imposes insecurity in Gaudio's head
can often turn a solitary singles match into a very crowded
experience for Gaudio, who had little trouble subduing both his own
self doubt and 15th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo, 6-1, 6-3, to
advance to the Monte Carlo semifinals for the first time since his
2000 debut.

"I think that always myself is my worst opponent. I (am) always
playing against myself first and then to the other one," Gaudio
said. "So I'm playing against two guys during the match...Imagine
how good I am, that I play against two."

Gaudio may feel even more outnumbered when he faces defending
champion Rafael Nadal in Saturday's battle of current and former
French Open champions. It is a match pitting two of the most
effective clay-court strokes in tennis: Nadal's lethal left-handed
forehand and Gaudio's brilliant one-handed backhand.

The second-seeded Nadal crushed 2004 tournament champion Guillermo
Coria, 6-2, 6-1, in today's quarterfinal that was a rematch of the
2005 final that Nadal won, 6-3, 6-1, 0-6, 7-5. Nadal won 11 straight
games in one stretch to extend his clay-court winning streak to 40
matches.

Coria fought back from a 1-6, 1-5 deficit and saved match points in
posting a 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 victory over Paul-Henri Mathieu in the
second round before rallying from a set down to defeat the combative
Nicolas Kiefer, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 yesterday. Drained by those
grueling duels as well as his ongoing struggle to control his
sporadic serve, a listless Coria had his blood pressure checked
during today's match, but could find no remedy for the physicality
of Nadal, who can sap the strength from an opponent's legs and lugs
by forcing him into a series of sprints.

"On this surface, on clay, yes, he's the toughest player because
every point is very intense. He plays very intense," Coria
said. "Also, on both sides he hits very hard. Until 4-2, all the
games were very tight, but he ended up winning them because he had a
better physical condition. He is like a beast, an animal, on the
court. He's very strong and he's very well prepared."

Gaudio is one of the only players with a career clay-court edge over
the muscular Mallorcan teenager. The ninth-ranked Gaudio has won
three of his five meetings with Nadal — all five matches have been
contested on clay — but Nadal has not dropped a set in winning their
last two meetings: a 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal conquest in Monte Carlo
last year followed by a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory in the 2005 Stuttgart
final.

Though he won five clay-court championships last season, Gaudio said
his current level of play is not as good as it was when he staged a
furious fight back from two sets down then saved match points in the
final set of an 0-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 8-6 victory over Coria in the
2004 French Open final.

Tomorrow, he will find himself across the net from this year's
French Open favorite and Gaudio knows he must lift his level of play
if he is to trouble Nadal.

"When I came in 2004 to the French Open, I was like playing good
tennis, but I didn't expect that I would win the tournament," Gaudio
said. "So this year we'll see. Of course we have Nadal and Federer
and both of them, maybe Coria, a lot of guys, who wants to win it.
It's gonna be tough for sure. But, anyway, I have to go there, play
my best tennis, and maybe it happens again."

For now, Gaudio will continue his efforts to mute the voices of self
doubt that sometimes scream out in his head during matches.
Argentina has the highest ratio of psychoanalysts and
psychotherapists per person in the world, according to Psychiatry
Online, and Gaudio said he works with a sport psychiatrist almost
daily when he is in Argentina in an effort to find a sense of mental
stability on court.

"Mentally, I don't know what is gonna happen tomorrow, you know.
It's like mentally I don't know what is gonna happen in the next ten
minutes," Gaudio said. "Maybe I get depressed in ten minutes. I
don't know myself too much. But I know that I was prepared, you
know, because I did it in the French Open. But I would love to feel
that feeling again."