Tortured Gaudio Wins a Match; Safin Ousted at Barcelona

Posted on April 21, 2009

Gaston Gaudio won the Barcelona title, and the French Open, but that seemed eons ago for the Argentinean who has been mired in injury and self-doubt for the last few years.

On Tuesday Gaudio won his first match in nearly two years, beating Argentine countryman Diego Junqueira 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at the Barcelona Open.

It was seven years ago when Gaudio held the Barcelona trophy aloft. These days the Argentine is a tortured shadow of his former self, but he nonetheless converted on six of seven break points, and came back from a break in the third to defeat Junqueira.

Gaudio had not won an ATP-level match since the 2007 French Open.

"I'm hardly at a level where I can be happy," said the No. 966-ranked Gaudio. "Tennis is bad business for me, but being away from it is even worse."

Seeded winners Tuesday at Barcelona were (4) David Ferrer, (9) Radek Stepanek, (12) Igor Andreev, (13) Richard Gasquet, (14) Robin Soderling, and (16) Feliciano Lopez.

No. 11 seed Marat Safin was upset by Argentine Juan Monaco.