Gustavo Kuerten
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Gustavo Kuerten (born September 10, 1976 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina) is a professional tennis player from Brazil. He is also known as Guga, an affectionate nickname which is a common abbreviation of the name "Gustavo" in Brazil. He is a former World No. 1 and three-time French Open champion.
Personal and early career
Kuerten's early life is marked by two family tragedies. The first one concerns his youngest brother, who suffered prolonged oxygen deprivation and consequently irrepairable brain damage during birth and as a result suffers from mental retardation and severe physical disability. Kuerten has been deeply affected by his brother's daily struggles. Every year of his professional career so far, he has donated the entire prize money from one tournament he wins to a hometown NGO that provides assistance for people suffering from similar disabilities. In his own family, Kuerten gives every trophy he wins to his younger brother as a souvenir (including the three miniature replicas of the French Open men's singles trophy).The second tragedy concerns Kuerten's father, who was a former amateur tennis player and in his later life a tennis umpire. In 1985, when Kuerten was only 8 years old, he died of a heart attack while umpiring a juniors match in Florianópolis.
Kuerten began playing tennis when he was six, and met Larri Passos, his coach for the next 15 years, when he was 14 years old. Passos convinced Kuerten and his family that he was talented enough to make a living out of playing tennis, and the two started traveling all over the world to participate in Junior tournaments. Kuerten turned professional in 1995.
Professional career
After two years as a professional, Kuerten rose to the position of no. 2 player in Brazil, second only to Fernando Meligeni, and had his then highest point by helping the Brazilian Davis Cup team defeat Austria in 1996 and reach the competition's first division, the World Group.Following his unexpected victory in the 1997 French Open, Kuerten had a difficult year and a half, adjusting to his sudden fame and the pressure of being expected to win. 1998 was the worst year in his career that was not related to injuries (in that year, Kuerten played beneath his potential, despite not being hindered by physical problems). The pressure for him to become an "ambassador" for tennis in Brazil was made evident after his early defeat to a then unknown Marat Safin in the 1998 French Open: the entire body of Brazilian journalists that had been dispatched to Paris to cover the event immediately returned home, leaving the rest of the tournament unaccounted for in Brazil.
Like many South Americans his favorite court surface is clay. He has won three Grand Slam titles, all of them at the French Open, played on the clay courts of Roland Garros. He won these titles in 1997, 2000 and 2001. Kuerten became the No. 1 player in the world in 2000 using his unique serve and strong ground strokes.
Kuerten embraces the baseline style of play, with heavily topspun ground strokes and a solid serve that enables him to wear down his opponent from the back of the court. His unique "grunt" when he strikes the ball is recognised by millions of fans around the world.
Kuerten represents Brazil, in the Davis Cup competition, but in the past few years his seasons have been plagued by injuries. Kuerten is one of the most widely recognised and popular tennis players on the ATP tour.
At the 1997 French Open, he became the first Brazilian to win a Grand Slam singles title since Maria Ester Bueno last single title at 1966 U.S. Open. Victories over three former champions: Thomas Muster (3rd round), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (quarterfinals) and Sergi Bruguera (final) made him the second-lowest ranked Grand Slam Champion (ranked 66th) and this led to him entering the ATP top 20.
In 1999, he became one of 3 South Americans to complete the year in the top 10 in all the history of the ATP rankings. He reached the quarterfinals at the French Open. At Wimbledon, he became the first Brazilian to reach the quarterfinals since Thomaz Koch in 1967. He was defeated by Andre Agassi in the quarterfinals, but had lost just one set until that stage. In July, he defeated Sebastien Grosjean 9-7 in the fifth set of the Davis Cup quarterfinal between Brazil and France. That match lasted 4 hours and 43 minutes. He also became the first Brazilian to qualify for the ATP World Championship (today the known as ATP Tennis Masters Cup, which is exclusive to the eight best ranked players in the calendar year).
Won his second French Open title and became the first South American to finish the year as World No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings (since 1973). It was a close contest with Marat Safin at the year's last event, the Tennis Masters Cup (in its first year under that name) in Lisbon, Portugal, with one loss meaning that Safin would have been No. 1. In order to finish the year as the world No. 1 player, Kuerten did what many critics had deemed impossible (for him to do): beat Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in back-to-back matches on an indoor carpet court.
He broke an eight-year hold of players from the USA on the year-end No. 1 position. He also became the first South American to finish in Top 5 in consecutive years since Guillermo Vilas of Argentina in 1977-78.
In 2001, he won his third French Open crown, joining former greats Björn Borg (6), Ivan Lendl (3) and Mats Wilander (3) with three or more French Open titles in the Open Era. His road to the title was not uneventful: Kuerten saved a match point against Fourth Round opponent Michael Russell. He also won the biggest hardcourt title of his career in August at the Cincinnati Masters, where he defeated Patrick Rafter in the final. He led the ATP in prize money for the second straight year, with USD $4,091,004.
In an injury-ridden year, Kuerten still managed to win one ATP Tour title, which he did at home, by winning the Brasil Open for the second time. In that year, the tournament had been moved from September to February, and the surface had been changed from hard to clay (all this was done as a result of a compromise with the Buenos Aires Open, in Argentina, and the Viña del Mar Open, in Chile, so as to tighten up a clear South American tournament circuit). With his victory, Kuerten became the only player so far to have won the title on both surfaces and dates (he had won the previous version of the tournament in 2002).
In addition to that, the one other noteworthy event in Kuerten's season was the fact that he was responsible for the only defeat suffered by Roger Federer in a Grand Slam event in that year. Kuerten's only previous encounter against Federer on clay (Hamburg Masters 2002) had resulted in a win for Federer, with the then emerging Swiss player handing the established French Open champion a bagel set. When they met again in the third round at Roland Garros in 2004, it was Federer who was in a dominant form and was expected to win handily against the injury-ridden Kuerten. Instead, it was Kuerten who overpowered and dominated Federer and sent him off in straight sets (6-4 6-4 6-4). Since Federer went on to win three of the four Grand Slam events of the year and had played well enough on clay in 2004 to win the Hamburg Masters Series event (defeating in the final the best clay player of the tour in the moment, Argentina's Guillermo Coria), some "credit" Kuerten with preventing Federer from completing a Grand Slam in 2004 (which would have been only the fourth time in all of men's tennis history).
On September 1, Kuerten announced that he would be withdrawing from the ATP Tour for an indefinite period of time, in order to undergo detailed exams of his operated hip, which had reportedly started to bother him again. He did not play again for the rest of the year.
2005
In February 2005, Kuerten announced his return in the Valencia Open, in Spain, which he would enter thanks to his ATP protected rank (a fictional ranking designed to help injured players: Kuerten would be able to enter automatically in as many as eight tournaments without the need of a wildcard or playing qualifying matches).On March 15, 2005, Kuerten announced that Larri Passos, his coach of 15 years, would no longer be his coach as of his return to the tour at the Valencia Open. Reportedly, the decision to break up the partnership was harmonius and mutual, since Passos had expressed his unwillingness to continue travelling the world after the birth of his first daughter. Kuerten also announced that he had no plans of hiring a new coach at the moment. This has led to speculation that he could be attempting to emulate the (rather successful) experience of Roger Federer in the 2004 season. After a slow start, however, Kuerten decided to hire temporarily Argentine former player Henry Gumy, who started coaching him in the Italian Open 2005 and would continue to do so in the weeks leading up to the French Open and during Kuerten's campaign in the Grand Slam event. After a poor campaign at Roland Garros (lost in the first round), Kuerten decided to retain Gumy's orientation for an undisclosed amount of time. Kuerten has also announced that he would not be playing any tournaments in the following months, with the exception of Davis Cup matches. He would return only in the tournaments that serve as preparation for the U.S. Open (but he did not play the two Tennis Masters Series events in North America). Following a second round defeat at the US Open (despite a promising first round win), Kuerten focused solely on his Davis Cup matches for the remainder of the season, which also resulted in 2005 being the first year without a title for Kuerten since 1996 (his second year as a professional player). Kuerten also decided to retain Gumy as his coach, apparently abandoning the idea of playing in the Tour without a coach.
2006
In the first months of 2006, injuries and weak performances kept Kuerten from reclaiming his condition as a top world player. Ranked out of the top 200, Kuerten is no longer the top player in Brazil (currently behind Ricardo Mello and Flávio Saretta) and is expected to need wildcards to play any of the main tournaments of the season. His main attempt to come back, at the 2006 Brasil Open, was cut short in the first round. Following this debacle, Kuerten managed to obtain wildcards to play in the two North-American Masters Series events, Miami and Indian Wells, but injuries forced Kuerten to withdraw from both. The French Tennis Federation had announced that Kuerten, as a three-time champion, would have every chance of being granted a wildcard to play at the 2006 French Open, provided that he managed to remain active throughout the 2006 season leading up to the French Open. Because Kuerten had been inactive in the Men's Tour since mid-February, he was not granted the wildcard to play, thus missing Roland Garros for the first time in his professional career.Miscellaneous
- Height: 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
- He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
- His elder brother, Rafael Kuerten, looks after his business matters.
- He and Roger Federer are the only non-North American tennis players who have appeared in the finals of all four ATP Masters Series events played in the subcontinent (Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal/Toronto and Cincinnati).
- Fastest serve: 212 km/h (at the Gstaad Open, in 1999)
- Plays: Right-handed with a one-handed backhand.
- Kuerten won at least one title a year between 1997 and 2004 (which meant that he had not won titles only in the first two years of his professional career: 1995 and 1996). The streak came to an end in 2005, when injuries and below-average performances kept him from winning tournaments.
- He has won titles in 13 different countries (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, United States, Portugal, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and New Zealand – but although this is the official figure, theoretically the number should be 14, since Kuerten won twice in Monte Carlo, and Monaco is a sovereign nation).
- Among the South American tennis players currently in activity, Kuerten has the most titles (20).
- Was the very first champion of the ATP Champions Race, in 2000.
- Highest rank:
- * Singles:
- **Entry system: 1 (December 4, 2000)
- ** ATP Champions Race: 1 (year 2000, as of June 12)
- * Doubles: 38 (October, 1997)
- Kuerten was fortunate enough that every time he won in Roland Garros he received the trophy from a tennis star from the past (as opposed to athletes from other sports or even unrelated celebrities): in 1997, the trophy was presented to him by Guillermo Vilas and Björn Borg, in 2000, he received the award from Boris Becker, and in 2001, from Jim Courier.
- The 1997 Roland Garros trophy presentation was marked by two amusing passages: first, when called to the stage to receive the winner's trophy, Kuerten bowed a few times to Björn Borg, who was waiting at the top of the stairs to shake his hand. It was a reverence to one of Kuerten's childhood icons. Later, during the ceremony, Guillermo Vilas whispered something in Kuerten's ear that caused him to laugh during the speech of the chairman of the event. Kuerten later refused to reveal what it was that Vilas had said, claiming it would be inelegant to do so, but journalists that were equipped with powerful lenses were able to read Vilas's lips, and it was revealed that he had said (in Spanish) something like: "Get ready kid, it's going to rain women on your lap!"
- In every one of the three times Kuerten won Roland Garros: 1) He defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov, of Russia, in the quarterfinal match; 2) He defeated exactly two Top 10 players (at the time of each event).
- When Kuerten won the 1997 French Open ranked 66th in the world (Entry system, prior to the creation of the Champions' Race), he became the second lowest ranked player to win a Grand Slam event (second to Mark Edmondson, who won the 1976 Australian Open ranked 212th in the world). Since then, Kuerten has been bumped down to third place, when Goran Ivanišević won the 2001 Wimbledon ranked 125th in the world.
- For two years, Kuerten had the second highest number of aces in a single match: 47 (second to Netherlands' Richard Krajicek's 49). This was achieved in a 2003 Davis Cup rubber against Canada's Daniel Nestor. The match was valid for that year's Repechage Round. Despite the aces, Kuerten lost the match in five sets. Kuerten's record has since been bumped to fourth place, when in 2005 both Joachim Johansson, of Sweden, and Ivo Karlović, of Croatia, scored 51 aces in their respective matches.
- In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 37th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
- Gustavo is renowned for having one of the most unique and comical "tennis grunts" when he strikes the ball, often described as a "long, drawn-out moan".
Titles (28)
Singles (20)
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| No. | |||||
| 1. | May 26, 1997 | French Open | Clay | Sergi Bruguera (Spain) | 6-3 6-4 6-2
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| 2. | July 20, 1998 | Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany | Clay | Karol Kucera (Slovakia) | 4-6 6-2 6-4 |
| 3. | September 28, 1998 | Majorca, Spain | Clay | Carlos Moya (Spain) | 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3 |
| 4. | April 19, 1999 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | Clay | Marcelo Ríos (Chile) | 6-4 2-1 ret. |
| 5. | May 10, 1999 | Rome, Italy | Clay | Patrick Rafter (Australia) | 6-4 7-5 7-6(6) |
| 6. | February 28, 2000 | Santiago, Chile | Clay | Mariano Puerta (Argentina) | 7-6(3) 6-3 |
| 7. | May 15, 2000 | Hamburg, Germany | Clay | Marat Safin (Russia) | 6-4 5-7 6-4 5-7 7-6(3) |
| 8. | May 29, 2000 | French Open | Clay | Magnus Norman (Sweden) | 6-2 6-3 2-6 7-6(6) |
| 9. | August 14, 2000 | Indianapolis, USA | Hard | Marat Safin (Russia) | 3-6 7-6(2) 7-6(2) |
| 10. | November 27, 2000 | Tennis Masters Cup (Lisbon, Portugal) | Carpet | Andre Agassi (USA) | 6-4 6-4 6-4 |
| 11. | February 19, 2001 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Clay | Jose Acasuso (Argentina) | 6-1 6-3 |
| 12. | February 26, 2001 | Acapulco, Mexico | Clay | Galo Blanco (Spain) | 6-4 6-2 |
| 13. | April 16, 2001 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | Clay | Hicham Arazi (Morocco) | 6-3 6-2 6-4 |
| 14. | May 28, 2001 | French Open | Clay | Alex Corretja (Spain) | 6-7(3) 7-5 6-2 6-0 |
| 15. | July 16, 2001 | Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany | Clay | Guillermo Cañas (Argentina) | 6-3 6-2 6-4 |
| 16. | August 6, 2001 | Cincinnati, USA | Hard | Patrick Rafter (Australia) | 6-1 6-3 |
| 17. | September 9, 2002 | Brasil Open, Costa do Sauípe, Brazil | Hard | Guillermo Coria (Argentina) | 6-7(4) 7-5 7-6(2) |
| 18. | January 6, 2003 | Auckland, New Zealand | Hard | Dominik Hrbatý (Slovakia) | 6-3 7-5 |
| 19. | October 20, 2003 | St. Petersburg, Russia | Hard | Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) | 6-4 6-3 |
| 20. | February 23, 2004 | Brasil Open, Costa do Sauípe, Brazil | Clay | Agustin Calleri (Argentina) | 3-6 6-2 6-3 |
Doubles (8)
| No. | ||||||
| 1. | November 4, 1996 | Santiago | Clay | Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) | Dinu Pescariu (Romania) / Albert Portas (Spain) | 6-4 6-2 |
| 2. | April 7, 1997 | Estoril | Clay | Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) | Andrea Gaudenzi / Filippo Messori (Italy) | 6-2 6-2 |
| 3. | June 9, 1997 | Bologna | Clay | Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) | Dave Randall / Jack Waite (USA) | 6-2 7-5 |
| 4. | July 14, 1997 | Stuttgart Outdoor | Clay | Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) | Donald Johnson / Francisco Montana (USA) | 6-4 6-4 |
| 5. | July 6, 1998 | Gstaad | Clay | Fernando Meligeni (Brazil) | Daniel Orsanic (Argentina) / Cyril Suk (Czech Republic) | 6-4 7-5 |
| 6. | January 1, 1999 | Adelaide | Hard | Nicolás Lapentti (Ecuador) | Jim Courier / Patrick Galbraith (USA) | 6-4 6-4 |
| 7. | February 28, 2000 | Santiago | Clay | Antônio Prieto (Brazil) | Lan Bale / Piet Norval (South Africa) | 6-2 6-4 |
| 8. | February 26, 2001 | Acapulco | Clay | Donald Johnson (USA) | David Adams (South Africa) / Martin Garcia (Argentina) | 6-3 7-6(5) |
Performance Timeline
Singles| Tournament | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 |
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Doubles
| Tournament | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 |
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| Australian Open
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| Wimbledon
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Titles detail
Grand Slam
1997 French Open| 1st Round | Sláva Doseděl (Czech Republic) | | 6-0 7-5 6-1 |
| 2nd Round | Jonas Björkman (Sweden) | | 6-4 6-2 4-6 7-5 |
| 3rd Round | Thomas Muster (Austria) | | 6-7(3) 6-1 6-3 3-6 6-4 |
| Round of 16 | Andrei Medvedev (Ukraine) | | 5-7 6-1 6-2 1-6 7-5 |
| QF | Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Russia) | | 6-2 5-7 2-6 6-0 6-4 |
| SF | Filip Dewulf (Belgium) | | 6-1 3-6 6-1 7-6(4) |
| Final | Sergi Bruguera (Spain) | | 6-3 6-4 6-2 |
2000 French Open
As in 1997, faced Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the quarterfinal match; Third consecutive final against Magnus Norman ("a historical rivalry", in Kuerten's words).
2001 French Open For the third time faced Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the quartefinal match; For the second time, faced Juan Carlos Ferrero in the Semifinal match. Saved a match point against Michael Russell in the Fourth Round.
Masters Series
1999 Monte Carlo Open
1999 Italian Open (Rome)
2000 Hamburg Open
2001 Monte Carlo Open
2001 Cincinnati Open
Kuerten later described this as his best-played tournament, given how many difficult opponents he had to defeat en route to the title. One statistic supports this position: The average ranking of his opponents was 13.16 which was the best of any of his Grand Slam or Masters Series title wins. It's also the best for any Cincinnati champion since the ATP world rankings began in 1973. (The second- and third-best average opponent rankings in Cincinnati were Andre Agassi's 18.16 in 2004, and Patrick Rafter's 18.80 in 1998, although in 1998, Rafter only had to play 5 matches.)
2000 Tennis Masters Cup (Lisbon)
After losing his first Round Robin match, Kuerten had to win the tournament in order to finish the year as world n.1 (had he won the first match, a semifinal result would have sufficed).Runner-ups (9)
In these occasions, Kuerten reached the final match but was defeated.
Davis Cup
Kuerten was first called to play for Brazil in the Davis Cup in 1996, when he became the second best ranked player in the country (second to Fernando Meligeni). Since then, Kuerten always answered the invitations to play, claiming that it was an unique opportunity to represent his country (a common allegation for players defending the importance of participating in the event).In the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Kuerten took criticism from his own fans, who accused him of not giving 100% in the Davis Cup matches, claiming he would be more concerned with sparing his energy for the ATP tournaments. At one point, Kuerten interrupted a match to argue with a fan who had shouted out for him to apply himself to the match at hand.
In 2004, following the country's unexpected defeat to Canada (in Calgary), in the Repechage match, and the country's demotion to the American Group I (the team had been defeated by Sweden in that year's First Round), discontent with the politics of the Brazilian Tennis Confederation, Kuerten refused to play for Brazil in the American Group I. The trouble started over the unexpected firing of the then Captain of the Brazilian team, Ricardo Accioly (also known as "the sparrow"). Kuerten thought it was an arbitrary decision, since it was made without consulting the players, and that, in his view, was the last drop in a sequence of "questionable" decisions made by organization's board.
Kuerten's lead was followed by all other Brazilian professional players, as well as by the newly appointed Captain, former player Jaime Oncins (whom Kuerten called at home to assure that the protest had absolutely nothing to do with him, but it was rather a revolt against the BTC). As a result, Brazil had to play the first confront in the Zonal Group with a team made up of junior players (which was only possible after much negotiation, during which time the country was at risk of forfeiting the Round, which would have resulted in automatic demoting to the American Group II), which resulted in a defeat and the possibility of demotion to the American Group II.
The protest continued, and as a result, Brazil had to play the Repechage match again with a junior team, and was demoted to the American Group II for the 2005 season. As of 2005, following the fall of the BTC board in the aftermath of the protest, Kuerten and the other players have decided to return to the team, now captained by former player Fernando Meligeni. Kuerten, however, had to delay his return beyond the end of the players' strike, since his hip injuries kept him off courts between September of 2004 and May of 2005. He returned in the Tie with the Netherland Antilles, valid for the Second Round of the American Zonal Group II, which was played in Santa Catarina, Brazil (on clay) between July 15 and July 17, 2005.
Kuerten's Davis Cup record is as follows:
| Total | Clay | Carpet | Grass | Hard | Indoor | Outdoor | |
| Won | 34 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 26 |
| Lost | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
[source]
Davis Cup results
1996
QF – Quarterfinal | SF – Semifinal | QR – Qualifying Round
External links
- [Profile on www.atptennis.com]
- [Career highlights on www.atptennis.com]
- [Official site] (in Portuguese)
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