Fernando Gonzalez
Tenth seed Fernando Gonzalez
Also In The News
Thursday, 18, Jun 2009 12:01
Date of birth: 29/07/1980 (Age: 28).
Nationality: Chilean
Height: 5ft 11in
Weight: 180lbs
Plays: Right-handed
Turned professional: 1999
Current ATP singles ranking: 10
Best Wimbledon performance: Quarter-finals - 2005
Grass court pedigree
It would be fair to say that grass may be Fernando Gonzalez's least favoured surface.
Despite making 22 career finals and winning on 11 occasions, none of these have been on grass, with clay by far his strongest discipline.
Gonzalez did make the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2005 before being knocked out by Roger Federer. Although, he only survived three days at SW19 last year - losing in four sets to Italian Simone Boletti in the second round. All three of the sets he lost came via tie-breaks, hinting at something of a shortcoming at the sharp end of matches here.
Wimbledon seeding: 10th
Chances of SW19 success?
Much will come down to the draw and other results as to how far Gonzalez can go at Wimbledon this year.
He comes into the tournament in strong form after narrowly missing out on a place in the French Open final, losing his semi-final in five sets to Robin Soderling.
In the Australian Open in January he faltered in round four against Rafael Nadal, but has registered success at the Vina del Mar tournament this year, albeit on clay.
Gonzalez's run could come down to how well he is striking his forehand and if he has fully gotten over the ankle injury that troubled him earlier in the year.
His forehand is one of the biggest in the game and he produced some dominant strokes with some incredible angles to beat Andy Murray in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
Another of Gonzalez's strengths is his shot selection and the way he thinks on court and this could be especially useful if he is drawn against some of the game's biggest servers in the early rounds.
Prediction: Quarter-finals
It is hard to see Gonzalez troubling some of the game's biggest stars so a quarter-final berth is the best he can realistically hope for, unless some early shocks occur.
He definitely has the shots in his armoury to trouble anyone on his day but he is yet to give an indication that a strong grass court tournament is on his agenda.
Gonzalez is one of the seeds that could suffer an early exit, but it would be a surprise if he didn't make round three at worst. There is also a strong chance that he will still be around come the second week.
Craig Kemp