Guillermo Coria

Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed El Mago (The Magician in Spanish), is an Argentine retired professional tennis player.

Coria won the Orange Bowl 16s in 1997 and reached the finals of Orange Bowl 18s in 1998, where he was defeated by future world No. 1 Roger Federer.

Coria won the boys' singles title at the 1999 French Open without dropping a single set, beating his friend and fellow Argentine, David Nalbandian in straight sets in the final.

One month later, at the 1999 Wimbledon Championships, in singles as the third seed, Coria reached semifinals without dropping a set, where he was defeated by top seed Kristian Pless in straight sets.

In doubles of the same tournament, however, as first seeds, Coria and Nalbandian teamed up to win the boys' doubles title by beating Todor Enev and Jarkko Nieminen.

Coria turned professional in 2000, finishing 2003, 2004, and 2005 as a top-ten player.

He was one of the fastest players on the ATP Tour, consistently showing exceptional performances in clay-court tournaments.

His playing style was that of a counter-puncher.

Between 2001 and 2002, he served a seven-month suspension for taking the banned substance nandrolone.

Coria tested positive for nandrolone in April 2001 after a match in Barcelona against Michel Kratochvil.

Coria was initially banned from tennis for two years, starting in August 2001, and was fined $98,565.

Coria claimed that the only supplement that he was taking was a multivitamin made by a New Jersey supplements company.

His family employed a private lab to test the multivitamin, which was found to be contaminated with steroids.

In December 2001, the ATP refused to acquit Coria but reduced his ban from two years to seven months, which meant that he would be free to continue with his tennis career in March 2002.

Coria sued the New Jersey supplements company for more than $10 million in lost prize money and endorsements and settled after the third day of the trial for an undisclosed amount.

As a result of the seven months during which Coria was banned from playing tennis, his world ranking dropped from No. 32 to No. 97.

2002 was, therefore, a rebuilding year for Coria, and he finished 2002 ranked at world No. 45.

Coria achieved his best results on clay, where he won eight of his nine ATP singles titles, and during his prime years in 2003 and 2004 was considered "the world's best clay-court player."

He was considered the "King of Clay" between 2003 and 2005 by reaching 6 out of 8 possible Masters finals (since he was absent for 2004 Rome Masters) on clay during that period.

While at the French Open, he also reached semifinals in 2003 and held two match points in the final in 2004.

As a junior, Coria reached a ranking of world No. 2 in singles and world No. 5 in doubles.

Coria signaled his arrival as a world-class clay-court player in 2003 by reaching the finals in Buenos Aires, where he lost a tight best-of-three-sets match to Carlos Moyá, and at the Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost in two straight sets to Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Coria went on to win his first Masters Series title at Hamburg by defeating Agustín Calleri in the final in three straight sets.

At the French Open, Coria defeated Andre Agassi in four sets in the quarterfinals, before suffering an upset loss to Martin Verkerk and his booming serves in the semifinals.

In July, Coria was increasingly establishing himself as the new king of clay by winning three clay-court tournaments in three weeks, the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, the Generali Open in Kitzbühel and the Orange Prokom Open in Sopot.

He won these three tournaments without dropping a set, dishing out five bagels and eight breadsticks in the process.

He finished the year ranked No. 5 in the world.

He reached a career-high ATP world No. 3 singles ranking in May 2004.

He reached the final of the 2004 French Open, where he was defeated by Gastón Gaudio despite serving for the match twice and being up two sets to love.

In 2004, Coria won the clay-court tournament in Buenos Aires and reached his first Masters final on hard court at the NASDAQ-100 Open, where he faced Andy Roddick.

From the first set onwards, Coria was visibly hurt by pains in his back that later turned out to be kidney stones.

Coria still won the first set 7–6, but Roddick won the next two sets 6–3, 6–1, before Coria was forced to retire during the first game of the fourth set.

Three weeks later, Coria defeated Rainer Schüttler in three straight sets in the final of the Monte Carlo Masters to win his second Masters Series title.

Coria had now won five consecutive clay-court tournaments which include two consecutive Masters Series titles and had gone 26 consecutive matches unbeaten on clay.

On 3 May 2004, Coria reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3. In attempting to defend his title at the Hamburg Masters, Coria increased his clay-court winning streak to 31 matches by reaching the final, where he lost to world No. 1, Roger Federer, in four sets.

At the French Open, Coria only dropped one set en route to the final, defeating Nikolay Davydenko, Juan Mónaco, Mario Ančić and Nicolas Escudé, before beating former world No. 1, Carlos Moyá, in the quarterfinals and British serve-and-volleyer, Tim Henman, in the semifinals; but he was unexpectedly defeated by unseeded compatriot Gastón Gaudio in an unprecedented all-Argentine final, 6–0, 6–3, 4–6, 1–6, 6–8.

Coria had won the first two sets with ease and was in control of the third set at 4–4 and 40–0 up on serve, before Gaudio broke Coria's serve and went on to take the third set.

Coria then succumbed to leg cramps for the rest of the match and was barely able to move at times, with many of his serves in the fourth set not even reaching the net.

Despite this, Coria still got the advantage at several stages of the fifth set, leading by a break of serve on four separate occasions, including twice serving for the championship at 5–4 and 6–5.

In later years, injuries and a lack of confidence affected his game, and he retired in 2009 at the age of 27.