At 27 years of age, Argentine Guillermo Coria decided to call it a day in tennis, officially ending his nine-year professional career highlighted with nine ATP titles and a French Open runner-up trophy in 2004.
In his statements published at the Argentine Tennis Association website, Coria said the decision has been a long time coming. For the past four years, his passion to compete was not what it used to be – the drive that catapulted him to third in the world rankings in 2004. It eventually showed in his performance, failing to win a title since 2005 and even bowing out in first round matches against lower-ranked players. He’s currently ranked 672.
“It’s impossible to do things well when it’s like that. In this sport, you have to be at 100 percent,” Coria said.
The Argentine is known for being a claycourt specialist. In 2004, he enjoyed a 31-match claycourt winning streak before it was halted by then world number one Roger Federer at the finals of the ATP Hamburg Masters, where Coria was the defending champion. He’s also known for handing current world number one Rafael Nadal his lone loss at the ATP Monte Carlo Masters in 2003 (4th round).
His lustrous tennis career made a sudden turnabout during the latter part of 2005, battling injuries and seeing his ranking drop dramatically. Shoulder and back injuries have hindered his comeback in the next three years. His last professional tennis match was at a challenger event in Bangkok last month where he lost in the first round.
Now that he’s officially hanging up his racket for good, Coria said that he’s looking forward to new projects and spending more time with his family.
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Career stats:
Singles titles: 9 [8 clay | 1 carpet]
Singles runner-up: 11 [7 clay | 3 hard | 1 grass]
Match Records: Singles [218 wins | 114 losses], Doubles [10 wins | 25 losses]
Career Prize money: $5,915,620
More stats at the ATP website.
