By TERRY MADDAFORD
Gaston Gaudio looked lost.
The Argentinian was heading into uncharted waters when he went into the post-match media conference after his upset 6-1 6-2 win over defending Auckland international tennis champion Sjeng Schalken yesterday.
"I don't know too much about this [the conference]," said Gaudio as he was ushered towards
the seat reserved for winners. "It is my first time."
Initially the 21-year-old asked if he could speak in Spanish but reluctantly agreed to English if the questions were asked slowly.
He need not have worried.
In his very best English the unseeded South American, who faces second seed and Heineken Open favourite Magnus Norman today, spoke of another journey he faces into the unknown - a semifinal at an ATP tour event.
"It will be my first semifinal in a big tournament but I will just play the same game."
And that is pretty darn good.
Playing almost exclusively from the baseline, Gaudio, ranked No 5 in his homeland behind Mariano Zabaleta - who beat Norman in the first round of last year's Heineken Open - gave Schalken nothing.
His ground strokes, with the racket head playing through the ball with amazing speed and power, was too good for the sixth seed.
"I sensed from the start he was struggling," said Gaudio. "That made me more aggressive. The whole match he did not play so good."
He decided against watching the Norman-Marc Rosset quarter-final but said he had no doubt he would sleep well ahead of his biggest day on the tour and one which guarantees him a flying start in the Player's Championship Race - the new world-ranking system.
And as to a win in Auckland - would that push Maradona, whom he lists along with Michael Jordan as one of his favourite athletes, off the front page?
"No. I would have to win a lot of tournaments to do that."
Gaudio, who first picked up a racket as an eight-year-old in Buenos Aires and played his first tournament two years later, is still in with a chance of that.
