Grand Slam finals usually aren't laughing matters, but Coria played Gaudio like a punch line in turning the first all-Argentine French Open final into the theater of the absurd.
A master of misdirection, "El Mago" bamboozled Gaudio with whimsical angles and wrong-footed him so thoroughly that at one point he was left laughing at the futility of it all. A commanding Coria reeled off 11 of the first 12 games, confounding Gaudio as he had in winning 49 of his previous 51 clay-court matches. At that point, Coria's coronation as king appeared a mere formality.
But ultimately, the 44th-ranked Gaudio unveiled the most spectacular trick of all: Turning embarrassment to exhilaration with an audacious escape act. Gaudio made two match points disappear in conjuring one of the most remarkable reversals in French Open history.
This was an alternately breathtaking and bizarre match. Coria completely outclassed Gaudio in the early stages, humbling him to the point that fans, desperate to find some form of engagement, erupted in a spontaneous wave. That burst of crowd participation burst the bubble of mastery: Gaudio cracked a smile and Coria cracked.
The third-ranked Coria, who had lost just one set in six tournament wins, built a 6-0, 6-3, 4-3 lead, but began to struggle with cramping—and choking—achingly close to the finish line. Gaudio won 11 of 12 games to force a final set that veered into unpredictability, with five service breaks and absorbing backhand exchanges that pitted Gaudio's sleek one-hander and Coria's inventive two-hander. Coria edged in front, 4-2, eventually earning championship point at 6-5. A long and adventurous point climaxed with Coria missing his trusty two-hander. On the second championship point, Coria missed the mark on a forehand up the line. Gaudio broke serve and a deflated Coria wilted, anguished by opportunity lost.
When it was over, a tearful Gaudio hurled his racquet into the crowd. He was the first man to save a championship point in the French Open final and win it since Gottfried von Cramm in 1934. The long-time rivals embraced before Gaudio took a triumphant victory lap around the court, pressing palms and slapping high-fives to fans in the front row. "This is a dream come true," Gaudio said. "I don’t know if I can believe this is really happening to me. This is like some kind of movie. I can’t believe it."
Indeed, had the story been submitted as a script, it might have been rejected for a plot too far-fetched. A man who had never been beyond the fourth round in 20 career majors and was often dismissed as a talented but temperamental player became the first Argentine man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to reign at Roland Garros. Vilas, who inspired Gaudio to “train hard and fight harder” when he was a junior, hugged the man from his hometown as he received his title trophy.
Wallowing at the extreme end of the emotional spectrum was Coria, left nursing the wounds of a gut-wrenching loss. The world No. 3 arrived in Paris as the highest-ranked Argentine since the man he was named after, Vilas, held the third spot in the rankings in March 1979. He left the City of Light with his dream of the winning the title flickering before finally fading to black: He would never reach another major final and was driven out of the game prematurely by injury; some wounds never really heal.
"[Gaudio] deserved it," said Coria, who smashed his racquet in disgust after the defeat and sat staring blankly into space, the broken stick occupying the seat next to him. "He came back from match points down to win."
No. 5: Graf d. Hingis (1999 Final)
No. 4: Gaudio d. Coria (2004 Final)
No. 3: Seles d. Graf (1992 Final)
No. 2: Lendl d. McEnroe (1984 Final)
No. 1: Evert d. Navratilova (1985 Final)
