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When Gaston won Roland Garros, how did you react?

8K views 116 replies 49 participants last post by  Action Jackson 
#1 · (Edited)
I was reading through the old threads on another board, and reliving one of the most satisfying tennis moments for me as long as I have been following the game. There have been a few for sure Wilander, Borg, Muster coming back from his injury, but this one when Gaston Roland Garros will never be forgotten.

This is what I wrote about it at the time, so bear with me.

GWH tales from the non-journalist:

Well well what can I say about that fantastic result. Gaston Gaudio French Open champion definitely has a great sound to it, El Gato winning the title was one of my great sporting highlights, the match itself wasn't the greatest but the outcome was absolutely fantastic and put me in a great mood for the day.

The first 2 sets were strange, there was a guy that looked like Gaudio, I think it was an impostor. The impostor was incredibly nervous and had kidnapped El Gato, and was just making error after error and seemed that they shouldn't have been in the same court. Coria was at his miserly best within 2 sets and was playing intelligently, though he didn't have to do much except hit good length and let the errors flow from Gaudio, which was working.

It was becoming increasingly frustrating, but I thought come on Gaudio, lets get down and fight, you come this far and if he loses I wanted him to leave nothing out on the court and make the other guy win. The French crowd with wave which was great as it finally relaxed El Gato and that impostor is kicked to the street. Gaston improves his length of shot, and makes less unforced errors and starts showing some cojones, and is getting positive results. Then the key moment happens when El Gato hits a great dropshot, Coria runs for it, and then pulls up a bit sore, straight away I am thinking Hamburg all over again, but El Gato breaks at 5-4 and serves the set out and we have a match.

Coria calls for the trainer at 1-1, I think it was cramp and the commentators who I don't normally agree with said if he comes out in the 5th set and starts running everything down, Gaudio will be very angry and there might be more fights after the match. I have clear ideas about the cramping rule, no treatment and I don't care who it is, cramp is not an injury, it's a loss of condition. Coria threw away the 4th set 6-1.

Well into the 5th set and the nerves are everywhere. There were more breaks of serve than prostitutes in the world's busiest brothel. Coria is noticably moving better and running down dropshots easily and trying to dominate with his forehand. Gaudio is crippled by nerves as well, then finally the footfault judges wake up and start calling the blatant footfaults from Coria and Gaudio is footfaulting through nerves. They were playing better off each others service games, Gaudio is physically stronger, but can he win the mental battle as he has never been in the lead and Coria's improved movement must have played on his mind.

Coria broke at 5-4 to serve for the match, then was broken to love, but El Gato loses serve again and Coria is serving for it at 6-5 and he has 2 match points, which Gaudio saved and broke back again. The nerves are running wild, but El Gato manages to control his and holds serve and Coria has to hold to stay in the match.

Gaudio reaches 2 match points and Coria is trying to break down El Gato's forehand and then he went crosscourt, Coria went down the line and then the beautiful moment that classical backhand struck into the open court and then the realisation that Gaudio has lived out his dream and he has won the title that meant the most to him.

What a great moment, congrats must go to Gaudio, for finally taking a good look at himself and where he wanted to be with tennis and doing something to fix the problem. Franco Davin for handling him, the psychologist which was needed to help him overcome the lack of self-belief, the mental demons, the choking episodes, the poor set 5 record and the horrible DC experience in Malaga. Even in the match Coria was hitting the lines, the mishits, the net cords were mostly in Coria's favour, and rose above the cramping of his opponent.

No matter what happens Gaudio has his name on the trophy with some absolute greats of the clay court game Borg, Lendl, Vilas, Wilander, Laver, Guga, Muster, Bruguera and there Gaudio's name sits along with them and has everything to be proud of.

Ever since that day in 1999 when I watched him the FO qualies, then when I saw his other comeback from 2 sets down against Bernd Karbacher, FB and myself thought this guy is cool. It will be interesting to see all the bandwagon jumpers, but if they stay then that's cool, like anything following Gaudio has never been easy and that 5th set summed up why, he should have it easily, but couldn't and he showed such cojones and that's why I am mainly proud of his achievement.
 
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#102 ·
bluegueber said:
That RG Final was an example of how nerves and fear can betray players who are not mature enough for such a final:

Gaston was paralyzed at the beginning, he even wanted to leave. Then, luckily for him, he was able to react.

When Guillermo was so close to glory, cramps started.

That's all. There is no need for further pathetic psychological analysis.
Unfortunately, that's not all. Coria, on the one hand, came into the final with thoughts of revenge and personal glory on his agenda for the day (which, probably not by accident, explains the cramping and the total collapse in the end), while Gaston kept his nerve when all seemed lost. It's no accident that things turned out the way they did. Just look at what happened after that final. One is struggling mightily with his game, while the other has found his.

You may call it "pathetic psychological analysis", but I call it universal truth. You cannot win with selfish motives-ever.
 
#103 ·
sophia_c said:
Good on you Rose...I watched him win with so much pride..I felt that the person who deserved it so much won on the day. We all know that Gaston never got as much funding as the others...and so for him to win was even more special....he remains a firm favourite of mine and always will..I love his smile and his reaction that day was amazing...
And for selfish reasons, I wanted Gaston to win so that Wertheim can eat his words.
 
#104 ·
I agree with Rosie, Gaston won with his own efforts and not with luck. In fact, as my old tennis coach used to remind me, " there is no such thing as luck in tennis, one wins, or loses by one's own efforts, or because of the other player's efforts. Luck has nothing to do with it." On that day, GG played much better and was able to control his nerve sufficiently well in order to win. Mr Coria, on the other hand, fell to pieces because he couldn't control his own feelings and emotions and concentrate on the tennis. I thoroughly agree with sigmagirl's observations, "You may call it "pathetic psychological analysis", but I call it universal truth. You cannot win with selfish motives-ever".
 
#105 ·
And, in closing, I am immensely pleased with Gaston's victory, for it showed many that you don't have to be 25 and under to enjoy career success. I think Gaston has hit his stride, and we can expect more great things from him in 2006.
 
#106 ·
sigmagirl91 said:
And, in closing, I am immensely pleased with Gaston's victory, for it showed many that you don't have to be 25 and under to enjoy career success. I think Gaston has hit his stride, and we can expect more great things from him in 2006.

:worship:

And even he if he can't big things in 2006 - he's already done much more then many expected.
Gaston is a winner for me.
 
#107 ·
First of all, I did not say that Gaudio was able to win due to luck. I meant that, luckily, he reacted (was able to overcome his fear - Gaston himself said "I was so scared") and as a consequence he was able to show his actual ability which I never denied. In fact, I have always admired his tennis. So please, do not misinterpret my words.

Secondly, I am not a Coria fan but I think it is unfair to attack him in this way. As I said before, cramps were a result of nerves and fear. How many times has Gaudio lost matches due to his mind? Guillermo is also a human being and you do not have any right to judge him.

Sorry if my objectivity disturbs you.
 
#108 · (Edited)
bluegueber said:
First of all, I did not say that Gaudio was able to win due to luck. I meant that, luckily, he reacted (was able to overcome his fear - Gaston himself said "I was so scared") and as a consequence he was able to show his actual ability which I never denied. In fact, I have always admired his tennis. So please, do not misinterpret my words.

Secondly, I am not a Coria fan but I think it is unfair to attack him in this way. As I said before, cramps were a result of nerves and fear. How many times has Gaudio lost matches due to his mind? Guillermo is also a human being and you do not have any right to judge him.

Sorry if my objectivity disturbs you.
I'm not disturbed; obviously you are. No one's attacking Coria; maybe your conscience has accused you once again-maybe?
 
#109 ·
Bluegueber, I do not want to have an argument, but I recall that when Gaston played against Federer in Shangai, you strongly criticized him.

You said that a "professional" could never attribute the loss of a match to nerves.

You seem to be more flexible when you talk about Coria.
 
#111 ·
bluegueber said:
How dare you compare Gaudio's horrible performance in the Shangai match with Guillermo's performance in the RG final - he was about to win, remember?
There's a massive difference between "about to win" and "don't have a chance in hell of winning". Coria couldn't close the deal, and Gaston didn't have a deal to close. You're right; there was no comparison, but you still applied your own principle unevenly. Again, why does your standard change where it concerns Coria?
 
#112 ·
bluegueber said:
First of all, I did not say that Gaudio was able to win due to luck. I meant that, luckily, he reacted (was able to overcome his fear - Gaston himself said "I was so scared") and as a consequence he was able to show his actual ability which I never denied. In fact, I have always admired his tennis. So please, do not misinterpret my words.

Secondly, I am not a Coria fan but I think it is unfair to attack him in this way. As I said before, cramps were a result of nerves and fear. How many times has Gaudio lost matches due to his mind? Guillermo is also a human being and you do not have any right to judge him.

Sorry if my objectivity disturbs you.
You objective, since when did this suddenly happen? I don't post very often and lurked in this forum for quite some time and read most of the posts in here. It seems you are trying to prove something, like instead of actually listening to other sides of arguments, you go ahead and call everyone else subjective and attempt to take the moral high ground by claiming objectivity disturbs you, when it does not agree with your line of thinking.

Next point, it was a strange match, but how is someone lucky when they have been physically prepared to last the distance of a five set match? Also, Gaudio was able to handle the pressure of the situation better than his opponent was on this day.

Why try and bring in other examples of other matches, when it does not have relevance to this particular match or is this an attempt to save face.

You say it's not Ok to attack Coria as a human being, yet you went on and called Gaudio unprofessional recently, keep up with the fluid definitions, it really suits you:)
 
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#113 · (Edited)
Interesting points.

This match has been spoken about to death and this is a celebratory thread remembering Gaston's greatest moment, but should be fairly obvious to most people.

Bluegueber, help me out here as has been asked and I am interested as well. What is it you are actually trying to prove? There is a very big chance I could be wrong here, you'd be one of the types that pissed on heckled Gaudio after the DC debacle and then changed after he won RG. The same time you didn't like the analysis by the particular writer. Why could that not have been addressed that in the News thread? But, instead of trying to piss on this happy celebratory thread.

Show some consistency, like in the question thread about DC, you claim not to be a Coria fan, yet you seem to enjoy trying to antagonising people in this forum, especially when his name is mentioned.

So calling someone unprofessional isn't an attack on their character? If this is not the case, then explain why this is? Spare me the rubbish about being objective as 100 per cent objectivity doesn't exist and never will exist. The key is how it's managed.

Luck happens in all forms of life and people have to be good enough to take advantage of whatever opportunity comes along and with tennis there are only 2 words that really count Win and Loss.

Ok, this is meant to be a happy celebratory thread and should be kept that way. If someone wants to discuss the article that discusses this issue, do it in the News/Info section and not try and piss in this thread.
 
#114 ·
I remember it like it was yesterday:)

I followed the first set here on MTF, because I was sure Coria would win. It was terrible: 6-0. So I decided to watch it myself. After the second set, even though it was a little better from Gaston (6-3), I gave up and went to play tennis with my sister, because I was 100% sure Coria would win at that point, as I had never assisted to a miraculous comeback in a men's Grand Slam final (I started to watch tennis in 2001). Then, when I came back from tennis, I opened the door of the house and I was hearing my sister scream! I ran to the living room and saw that it was 4-3 in the 5th set!!!!!!!!! I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, because I was sure the match was over since a long time. My sister explained me what happened (the cramps in the 4th set, the standing ovation in the 3rd set)... So I was all shaky and watched it till the end. During Coria's match points I was always hopeful Gaston could save them, because I knew he was in better shape and he really believed in it at that point. When he won we definitely screamed in joy, and I was still speechless, still shocked about what I just assisted to. Then I got the match on DVD and it is among my most favorite matches ever:)!
 
#116 ·
The other day Mats Wilander was interviewed by La Nación, and he recalled his impressions of that RG final. As I don't think he will visit this thread, I want to do it for him! :D
Unfortunately I can't find the article now, but the gist of it was that he said that more than tennis it was high drama, the most exciting match he'd ever seen, and that afterwards he'd contacted Gastón and asked to join him for the celebrations because he wanted to be there at that moment. He also said "Coria didn't lose in the fifth set, he lost that match in the third".
 
#117 ·
Vale said:
The other day Mats Wilander was interviewed by La Nación, and he recalled his impressions of that RG final. As I don't think he will visit this thread, I want to do it for him! :D
Unfortunately I can't find the article now, but the gist of it was that he said that more than tennis it was high drama, the most exciting match he'd ever seen, and that afterwards he'd contacted Gastón and asked to join him for the celebrations because he wanted to be there at that moment. He also said "Coria didn't lose in the fifth set, he lost that match in the third".
You think he doesn't visit these forums. :)
 
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