Tennis: The pocket battleship Guillermo Coria

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Guillermo Coria would love nothing more than to give his wife Carla a belated wedding present with victory in next week's open.

Stepping out for the Heineken Open as top seed will be a new experience for Coria, who celebrates his 22nd birthday on Tuesday.

And not only because he will be playing his first tournament with his wife, of only 12 days, courtside.

"I have never been top seed before. I think four or five is the highest," said Coria, who was on court practising with Gustavo Kuerten within hours of arriving from Argentina yesterday morning.

"Being top seed is really good motivation for me. I am looking forward to playing in Auckland again. It is the chance for me to beat 'Guga' [Kuerten]. He beat me in the quarter-finals.

"But it is also good just to play in Auckland and get matches before the Australian Open."

What else does he remember of his first visit to Auckland?

"The rain," he said with a smile.

Married to Carla Francovigh on December 27, life has been one big party in the past couple of weeks.

Now, for the player who has risen rapidly through the ranks since turning professional in 2000, it is back to business.

He was 45th in the world when he played at the ASB Tennis Centre a year ago. In the past year he pocketed US$1.9 million for career earnings of US$2,645,470.

At 1.75m and only 65kg, he is a pocket battleship. Even in practice yesterday, he showed some amazing power when serving.

His backhand too looked more than useful as he worked out with coach Alberto Mancini.

His ambition, no surprise, is to reach No 1.

"Now I'm in the top five, that is special motivation. To be No 1 would be special," said Coria, who has followed Kuerten and countryman David Nalbandian as the highest-ranked South American in the end-of-year ATP rankings.

Mancini, in 1991-92, was the last Argentine to achieve that before the Nalbandian-Coria era.

Mancini, who began working with Coria right after last year's Australian Open, said he was enjoying the experience.

"He was a great player before I started coaching him," said Mancini.

"We have now been organising his game to get the most out of him."

His strengths?

"His speed. He is really fast. He takes the ball early," said Mancini, a former top 10 on the ATP tour.

"And, he makes few unforced errors.

"He can be aggressive. His mind and his footwork make him very competitive. They [his opponents] know how to beat him but to do it they have to work hard - very hard.

"He has unbelievable timing."

Taking a break after the Tennis Masters Cup in November, Coria has since put in 15 days of hard work as he prepared for the New Year in which he will chase a first Grand Slam title.

He came close at Roland Garros last year, reaching the semifinals after beating Andre Agassi in the quarters.

In the Australian Open, ironically playing Agassi, he retired in the fourth round.

Victories in five tournaments - and a 60-16 win-loss record - during the year helped lift his ranking from 45 to single figures.

Like Kuerten, Coria is keen to play the Olympics.

"I want to go there and be part of the team from Argentina," he said. "I can't understand why a player like Lleyton Hewitt does not want to go to the Olympics. But that is his own decision."