From Eurosport: Coria pulls off amazing comeback
Sixth seed Guillermo Coria pulled off an amazing comeback against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu on Wednesday to book a place in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Having dropped the first set 6-1 and traling 5-1 in the second the Argentine recovered to eventually take the match 1-6 7-6 6-4.
Coria started the match terribly and did looked a shadow of the player who won the same tournament in 2004.
His first serve was rarely on target and the opening exchanges were littered with double faults from the Argentine. But worse still, Coria let his faltering serve affect the rest of his game.
Mathieu pounced on his good fortune and took the first set with the loss of just one game before continuing his run by racing to a 5-1 lead in the second.
Coria pulled a game back, but few would have bet on Mathieu squandering two service games when his opponent was playing as badly as Coria.
But squander them he did, as Coria found strength from somewhere deep inside his compact body to twice break, at 5-2 and 5-4, and set himself up to take the second set on a tiebreak.
With the tide turned, and Mathieu clearly suffering from a severe case of stage-fright, Coria took full advantage. He stormed into a 5-2 lead in the final set as he began to show the Monegasque crowd what he is capable of.
But Mathieu was not finished there - he pulled back to 4-5 and held his opponent at deuce for a lengthy period in the final game before finally capitulating.
Rousing stuff from Coria, but his performance will have raised serious question marks over his ability to win anything on clay this year.
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