Born: 9/12/78 Nationality: Argentine Seeded: 29 World ranking: 26 Wimbledon best: 2nd round (2002) Recent record: 2002: 2nd round 2001: 1st round 2000: 1st round

And like many of them, the 24-year-old looks destined to find the course a tad too difficult.

He managed a victory last year, which was a marked improvement on the previous two tournaments when he failed to get out of the stalls.

Gaudio has had an average season without taking the men's tour by storm.

But arguably his finest fortnight came in the build-up to last year's French Open.

The Argentine won back-to-back titles in Barcelona and Mallorca, beating Carlos Moya, Lleyton Hewitt, Albert Costa and Gustavo Kuerten along the way.

As expected he performed well at Roland Garros in 2001, and it took Juan Carlos Ferrero five epic sets to end Gaudio's challenge in round four.

This season has not quite lived up to that standard and Guillermo Coria has rather stolen his thunder as the latest Argentine clay-court star.

Gaudio's results away from clay are certainly less impressive, although there have been signs of improvement on hard courts.