[News]Baker Records Major Upset
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articles/2005-08-29/200508291125350241105.html
Baker Records Major Upset
by Brian Cleary
Monday, August 29, 2005
Brian Baker got American tennis off to a booming start at
this year's US Open, and perhaps jump-started his own
career, with a huge upset over the ninth seed Gaston Gaudio
of Argentina. The 20-year-old Baker, ranked just No. 195
and needing a wild-card for the third-straight year to get
into the Open, made good, even great, of his opportunity by
taking down the 2004 French Open champion on the Grandstand
in straight sets, 7-6 (9), 6-2, 6-4.
"I think I've always had it in me, I just haven't quite
been able to put it together for a whole match,'' said
Baker, a Nashville native who showed tremendous promise as
a junior, winning the Orange Bowl in 2002 and reaching the
final of the French Open juniors in 2003, but has struggled
since turning pro in 2003.
"I'll take any Grand Slam victory right now, but especially
on the Grandstand with a great atmosphere like that.''
Gaudio, who owns five clay-court tournament victories this
year, has been reasonably solid this year on hard courts,
including a third-round showing at the 2005 Australian
Open. Yet, he's always struggled here at the Open. In six
previous appearances he's won just two matches and this
marks the fifth time he's lost in the opening round. Still,
as the No. 9 player in the world he was a heavy favorite
going into the match.
The fact is Baker had never won a men's match at the Open
in four tries, including two opening-round losses in the
qualifying draws in 2001 and 2002. He has never played in
any other Grand Slam event. Of the 10 tournaments Baker
played leading up to the Open in 2005, eight of them had
been at the Challenger level and he had won just one
tour-level match all year, a victory over No. 181 Ivo
Heuberger in Washington earlier this month.
"We've known he has the ability, and the talent, to be a
top-50 player,'' said Rodney Harmon, the USTA's Director of
Men's Tennis. "He's developing. One of the things with
Brian is that he's a tall guy and he's still got a lot of
filling out to do.''
Baker's first Grand Slam victory was made all the more
impressive by the fact that he's been off the tour more
than four months this year with injuries. A knee injury in
the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon this year
curtailed his training this summer. In the third set Baker
called a trainer because of an onset of leg cramps,
something Baker said had as much to do with nerves as a
lack of conditioning.
Throughout the match Baker showed an impressive all-court
game. At 6-foot-3 he serves big and can play an attacking
style. More impressive perhaps, and what he showed against
Gaudio, is his strong baseline game. He was able to go
toe-to-toe with Gaudio throughout the match, no small feat
considering Gaudio's top-10 ranking rests on his booming
groundstrokes.
"From the baseline I thought, like I could take advantage,
make him move around a little bit, but I couldn't do it,''
said Gaudio after the match, looking like a man who had no
answers for his young, relatively unknown opponent.
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