Gaudio Upends Fellow Argentine Puerta
Gaudio notched his first TMC win. By Bill Scott
Gaston Gaudio re-established an air of normality Monday night at the Tennis Masters Cup 2005 as he ignored the hype from a pair of high-profile pullouts to defeat Argentine compatriot Mariano Puerta 6-3, 7-5 in their opening Gold group match.
After injury withdrawals from tennis icon Andre Agassi (ankle sprain) and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal (long-standing foot ligament damage), the 2004 Roland Garros champion came out and got his job on court done.
It took Gaudio 76 minutes to dispatch Puerta, who came into the eight-man field as a substitute for Nadal.
The pair of Paris standouts - Gaudio won the 2004 title, Puerta lost the 2005 final to Nadal - thrilled a crowd at the Qi Zhong tennis center with solid carpet play from a versatile pair of clay-bred South Americans.
"I'm feeling great, nothing is going wrong with me," said a confident Gaudio. "I'm fit and nothing is going to happen with me, I hope.
"I have to play match by match. My coach told me as soon as I finished the match that Agassi pulled out. I have to think about the next match, and it's against Davydenko. If I don't win, I don't know if I'm going to qualify or not. It depends on what I do."
Gaudio fired over ten aces and 31 winners, committing 20 unforced errors. Puerta's 25 mistakes and a modest conversion rate of three for ten on break points sealed his fate on the Taraflex.
The win marked a personal best for Gaudio, who began improving a 0-3 record in Tennis Masters Cup group play from 2004 in Houston.
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Also on Monday: Davydenko Defeats Injured Agassi
Doubles Review: Huss-Moodie Dent Bjorkman-Mirnyi's Hopes
Sunday: Ljubicic Clinches Win in Debut
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