 | Born: 28/02/78 Nationality: Argentine Seeded: 30 World ranking: 31 French Open best:
4th round (2003, 2002) Recent record:
2003: 4th round
2002: 4th round
2001: 1st round |
Zabaleta was once marketed by the ATP as one of the world's most promising players, along with the likes of Marat Safin, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt. The Argentine has not quite lived up to expectations, but he is now a regular in the world's top 30 and on clay he is a dangerous prospect.
In his first tournament of the year he reached the quarter-finals in Chile and followed that with another last-eight appearance in Buenos Aires.
He had limited success on the hard-courts of North America - saving his best displays for the French Open warm-up events.
In May, he reached the semi-finals in the Rome Masters, beating seeded players Tim Henman and Nicolas Massu in the process.
A fierce hitter from the back of the court, Zabaleta also has a neat touch at the net and reached the quarter-finals of the French Open in 2001.
He has made it to the fourth round on his last two visits to Roland Garros and should be confident of at least making it a hat-trick.
MMIX
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