Retired Argentine Tennis player Guillermo Coria turns 35 today.

Known as El Mago [The magician in Spanish], he had the best years of his career from 2003-2005.

His shot at glory was for a brief period. And this was when he was a Master of clay and he won a total of nine titles in his career.

Since 2005 though, he began suffering from service “yips”, which led to plenty of double faults in his games. The situation turned worse and he had to spend a year and a half, away from the game.

Coria’s stature though, as King of clay was soon taken up by Rafael Nadal, and officially he retired in 2009.

Perhaps Coria might go down in Tennis history, as someone who ‘could have been’.

Other sport stars born on this day

1976: Mario Yepes – Retired Colombian footballer, played as defender, now manager of Deportivo Cali.

1982: Kamran Akmal – Pakistan wicketkeeper, right-hand-batsman, brother of Umar Akmal, who also plays for Pakistan.

1989: Bryan Arguez – American Professional Soccer player, plays for Pittsburgh Riverhounds in United Soccer League.