Mariano Zabaleta underwent arthroscopic knee surgery towards the end of 2005, forcing him out
of the game for more than six months. The start of the 2007 season must have been very
discouraging for the tall, dark Argentinian as a string of poor results and niggling
injuries frustrated his hopes of climbing back up the rankings. The advent of the clay
court season, however, has heralded a dramatic turn of fortunes. He reached the final of
the US Clay Court Championships in Houston and followed it up by winning the XL Open in
Bermuda, a result which restored him to the world's top 100.
A painful blister on his right foot clearly hampered Zabaleta during the final against
Frank Dancevic in Bermuda but he battled through and kept his opponent on the back foot with his
aggressive forehands. Pleased as he undoubtedly was with his 7-5 5-7 6-3 victory, he appeared
to be even more delighted to meet actress Catherine Zeta-Jones at the post-match presentation.
"I had a really great week here in Bermuda," he enthused. "I love the tournament and the people.
I also love Catherine Zeta-Jones! It was a total surprise when she presented the trophy to
me — she is incredible! For me this was a better result than getting to the final in Houston.
I'm so happy though because I was injured for so long and you do start to think maybe you will
never be as good as you were before. I played really badly in the first couple of months of
this year as well and I really didn't know how I was going to improve. I have played a lot
of matches in the last three weeks, which is what I needed to find my game, but now I'm very
tired and am going to take a couple of weeks off before I go to Europe to prepare for the
French (Open)."
Zabaleta, whose father was a well-known rugby player in Argentina, won the French Open Boys'
Singles title in 1995 (defeating fellow countryman Mariano Puerta in the final). He captured
his first ATP title in Bogota in 1998 and reached three ATP finals in 1999, finishing the
year as Argentine No. 1 for the first time in his career. Not exclusively a clay court player,
he reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2001 - the first Argentine to do so since
Guillermo Vilas in 1982.
A big soccer fan and supporter of the River Plate team in Argentina, Zabaleta's sporting idols
as a child were Diego Maradona (soccer) and Mats Wilander (tennis). In 2004, he started
hosting the Tenis Pro show on Fox Sports. He is coached by Guillermo Perez-Roldan and his
fitness trainer is Juan Menchon.
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