Argentine tennis player Guillermo Coria, 24, a former world number three player, has hired compatriot Hernan Gumy as his tennis coach, and began training on Monday, after six weeks resting from a slack 2006 season, local media said Tuesday.

Guillermo Coria of Argentina returns the ball to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France during the second round of the Monte Carlo tennis open in Monaco April 19, 2006. Coria defeated Mathieu 1-6 7-6 6-4. [Reuters]

Coria started 2006 with a Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) number eight ranking, but crashed to 116 after 2006's lame play.

Gumy coached Brazil's Gustavo Kueten and Argentina's Guillermo Canas, before becoming Coria's ninth coach. Since the start of the year Coria has fired Spain's Josep Perlas and Jose Higueras; and Argentina's Horacio de la Pela.

Coria had begun physical training two weeks ago with Jorge Trevisan.

Since May this year, Coria has been knocked out in the first round of eight international competitions, and reached the semi-finals in only one: the Amersfoort in the Netherlands, where he lost to Serbia's Novak Djokovic. He has lost 15 matches and won only 11 in 14 ATP tournaments and one Challenger tournament.

In his career as a whole, which began in 2000, he has won eight major tournaments.