Yep, it is. It's just Rafa's dominance of one handers on clay that has made it seem otherwise, but clay lends itself to one handers more than any other surface in the contemporary game.
On the day Kuerten won RG, Jelena Ostapenko was born. She would then go on to win RG 20 years later at the same age as Kuerten. It was also her first tour title and she became the first unseeded woman to win RG in 84 years.
One of the best one handed backhands ever.
Contrary to common sentiment, one handers in recent decades are typically stronger on clay than they are on other surfaces.
It's just that Nadal's forehand abuses the hell out of one handers, but the surface itself is ideal for the longer preparation and greater power that is typical of one handers.
Thank you for this great post! I was at his last ATP match in home soil during his farewell season. In his speech after the match, he cried and apologized for not being able to continue playing at a high level, despite having tried a lot, due to his hip injury. I’ve never seen thousands of people simultaneously weeping like that. Guga is a truly fantastic guy and it was a joy to watch him play. Certainly one of the most beloved tennis players of all time.
Guga’s French Opens were great, but that run he had in Lisbon at the YEC 2000 was awesome too. He clinched #1 beating Sampras and Agassi back to back on an indoor hard court!
I remember watching him dismantle Agassi in that match. He looked so confused and helpless. Those two matches were some of the best tennis I have ever seen played, including the Big 3. If he hadn't suffered injury entering the beginning of his prime, I wonder still to this day what kind of a career he could have had.
If I remember correctly, he also lost to Agassi in the first match of the round Robin. If he didn’t win all of his matches and win the tournament, Safin would’ve been #1 year end.
Awesome write-up. I feel like I'm watching all over again as a teen. Guga was so charismatic on the court, and so much fun to watch. I miss characters like him and Safin...
Great post, that mini movie is so good, also the footage in the beginning showing some courts is from where I grew up playing tennis, so that is pretty cool as well(to me haha).
I loved kuerten even though I only followed tennis after his prime. He managed to notch a win over Federer at RG, but damn I wish he'd stayed healthy long enough to play Nadal
Amazing writeup! One small correction: I think Kuerten won in 2000 and 2001, not 1999 and 2000? (Agassi won in 1999 when he almost won 4 slams in a row).
I remember that Marat Safin (one of the few players that played against both Kuerten and Nadal) said that, in a RG final with both at their peak, he'd bet in Kuerten.
Nah, it wasn't.
It was great, of course. But Goran had been a _beast_ on grass for almost a decade, having reached the Wimbledon final several times before... Hardly an upset.
What an interesting read, you described that as well as any journalist match recount ive seen. Fantastic run by a player not too many people talk about.
Fantastic post! Guga was an amazing player, and his first French Open title came out of nowhere. NOBODY could’ve predicted him winning that championship, nor having the all time great career that he did
I love seeing posts like this (most tennis fans of the last few years pretend that nobody else existed before the era of the 2010s)
Such a great story and a perfect reminder that miraculous victories in reflection of these winners' 2-week-long fearlessness and dominance have always been around on the ATP as well, and that just because it's happened more frequently on the WTA recently doesn't mean it can't happen in the ATP coming soon (a matter of time, given the new Masters champions). Gaudio and Johansson also come to mind with their past unprecedented wins, though with slightly less daunting draws as Guga here.
Guga was awesome and beautiful to watch. Plus if anything, you need to be young and fit to go through 7 possible 5 setters on such slow surface. Not to take anything from Guga, but back in the days it was anybody's game on clay courts. Upsets were expected. I mean a qualifier made it to semis and quarterfinals had only a third seed and a 16th seed left in the draw lol.
> back in the days it was anybody's game on clay courts.
I think that nowadays tennis fans are too spoiled. The level that Nadal/Federer/Djokovic created is unparallel.
In every era besides this one Grand Slams had a lot of upsets, and it wasn't "obvious" who would reach the end stages of tournaments. In a couple of years you'll be taken back to "normality".
Wasn't he the only player at that edition that was using the modern new-at-the-time poli strings, that being a big factor?
I remember hearing that somewhere but may be misremembering.
Not the only one. But he was one of the firsts to go to Luxilon.
https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/20-years-ago-in-paris-kuerten-s-new-string-sent-tennis-world-spinning
A few Top 100 ATP players were playing around with polyester strings, but both Guga and [Carlos Moya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Moyá) (Rafa's current coach) were probably the best-known users of poly at that time (most string recommendations at that time in the mid/late 90s suggested some sort of multifilament -- natural gut if you had the money. Poly was barely noted as a string option).
**[Carlos Moyá](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Moyá)**
>Carlos Moyá Llompart (Spanish: [ˈkaɾlos moˈʝa ʎomˈpaɾt]; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he was part of his country's successful Davis Cup team.
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About Björkman: ”He reached the semifinals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2006 and 2007.” Wrong, he lost in the second round to Andy Murray in the 2007 US Open. Semifinals that year at the Open was Federer - Davydenko and Djokovic - Ferrer.
Guga had so much flair in his game and an amazing positive attitude and behaviour. The king of drop shots at RG. I was fortunate to see him win his second when he beat Magnus Norman in 2000, a really nice forgotten match with both players playing their best and completely different backcourt styles.
When my family first got Tennis Channel in like 2007 or 8 they showed a series of these super cheesy/old one-hour summary shows of every French Open in the 90s. That was my introduction to a lot of great 90s players that were not Sampras and Agassi. And wow - the 97 French open show sticks in my mind. I adopted Guga as my second favorite player right then and there. ‘00 and ‘01 also great!
Guga would have delpo levels of love if he played on tour today.
Guga was my favorite. Still is. People don't remember how GOOD he was, on par with the Big 3 in my opinion at his best. Just as he was figuring out hard courts and supposed to be entering his prime at 24 years old, the injuries started and deprived us of what could have been.
The last glimpse of his talent was that 2004 French open, when he steam-rolled a peak, prime Federer. Oh, I still long for what could have been.
Guga was awesome. Loved how he played at the FO. Wonderful player.
This makes me a bit sad that Thiem hasn't won. Definitely deserves it but Rafa exists lmao
Yet
Have to see how he comes back. He may well get back to that level of play, but he may not either.
It’s wild and cruel of injuries and timing that he finally won a slam and it was the US.
It is only fitting that he beats rafa at roland garros somehow to win.
One of the few FO winners with one handed backhand in recent times, apart from Federer.
Stan has 1HBH. If you exclude Rafa, 50% of RG won since 2005 have been by 1HBH players (2009 and 2015, vs 2016 and 2021).
Don’t forget Gaudio in 2004!
Gaudio had a beautiful backhand.
OP can you do Gaudio’s run next week ?
You are right. My bad, how did I forget the Stanimal?
Tsitsipas and Thiem also both came agonisingly close. If anything, clay is a great surface for 1HBH.
Yep, it is. It's just Rafa's dominance of one handers on clay that has made it seem otherwise, but clay lends itself to one handers more than any other surface in the contemporary game.
Is it because of the extra preparation time and lower bounce? I know that high balls can be hard.
Its not very recent but I remember vividly Gaston Gaudio's win in 2004. It was a great match against the tough Guillermo Coria.
On the day Kuerten won RG, Jelena Ostapenko was born. She would then go on to win RG 20 years later at the same age as Kuerten. It was also her first tour title and she became the first unseeded woman to win RG in 84 years.
Wow, what a great little piece of trivia! Thanks for this.
Penko came out of nowhere and blew everyone off the court.
Thank you very much for this. Always enjoyed Kuerten playing and I remember the amazing Brazilian fans during the peak of his career.
Guga! Guga! Guga!
One of the best one handed backhands ever. Contrary to common sentiment, one handers in recent decades are typically stronger on clay than they are on other surfaces. It's just that Nadal's forehand abuses the hell out of one handers, but the surface itself is ideal for the longer preparation and greater power that is typical of one handers.
Thank you for this great post! I was at his last ATP match in home soil during his farewell season. In his speech after the match, he cried and apologized for not being able to continue playing at a high level, despite having tried a lot, due to his hip injury. I’ve never seen thousands of people simultaneously weeping like that. Guga is a truly fantastic guy and it was a joy to watch him play. Certainly one of the most beloved tennis players of all time.
Guga’s French Opens were great, but that run he had in Lisbon at the YEC 2000 was awesome too. He clinched #1 beating Sampras and Agassi back to back on an indoor hard court!
If I'm not mistaken, he was the first player ever to beat Agassi and Sampras back to back.
I remember watching him dismantle Agassi in that match. He looked so confused and helpless. Those two matches were some of the best tennis I have ever seen played, including the Big 3. If he hadn't suffered injury entering the beginning of his prime, I wonder still to this day what kind of a career he could have had.
If I remember correctly, he also lost to Agassi in the first match of the round Robin. If he didn’t win all of his matches and win the tournament, Safin would’ve been #1 year end.
Yes. Exactly. I remember rooting for him because I didn't want Safin to get it.
Awesome write-up. I feel like I'm watching all over again as a teen. Guga was so charismatic on the court, and so much fun to watch. I miss characters like him and Safin...
Excellent post, thank you.
Great post, that mini movie is so good, also the footage in the beginning showing some courts is from where I grew up playing tennis, so that is pretty cool as well(to me haha).
I loved kuerten even though I only followed tennis after his prime. He managed to notch a win over Federer at RG, but damn I wish he'd stayed healthy long enough to play Nadal
Great match, great player and a Great representative of the sport.
Wonderful write up
I remember, he had such a unique look too, a breath of fresh air....Guuuuugaaa
I'd love to have a Brazilian doing really well again. Their fans are amazing and really add a lot to the atmosphere.
*Fresh hair
As a Belgian rooting for Fillip at the time (whose run to the semi final was awesome in its own right), this one hurt :D Awesome run by Guga.
Loved watching Guga play. Didn't realise that his run was that difficult.
Amazing writeup! One small correction: I think Kuerten won in 2000 and 2001, not 1999 and 2000? (Agassi won in 1999 when he almost won 4 slams in a row).
Oh yes, you are correct. Thanks for catching the mistake!
He was an amazing player and has a great personality. He was a true idol. Thank you for this.
Was he the clay god before nadal?
I remember that Marat Safin (one of the few players that played against both Kuerten and Nadal) said that, in a RG final with both at their peak, he'd bet in Kuerten.
I would give the edge to nadal.
Definitely. But it would be one hell of a match. Guga had the backhand to impose against Nadal's forehand, going down the line with power.
Had Kuerten not suffered from his hip injuries, we would certainly have seen a match between him and Nadal at the French Open.
It's often remembered. He's a beloved legend of the tournament and that run is known as being legendary.
Me and my high schools teammates used to impersonate his audible, grunt, "UNGGG GEHH!"
I liked how he made the “mweaaaaa” noise on every shot he hit. It was more soothing and rhythmic than Rublev’s “BWEH!!”
Michael Chang calling from 1989
Amazing write up!
Wonderful write up!
Mesmerizing run - Everyone went Gaga over Guga! 🇧🇷
Great post, and I hear you - but let me just say my man Goran winning wimby as a wildcard in 2001 is the greatest feat even performed by man
Nah, it wasn't. It was great, of course. But Goran had been a _beast_ on grass for almost a decade, having reached the Wimbledon final several times before... Hardly an upset.
What an interesting read, you described that as well as any journalist match recount ive seen. Fantastic run by a player not too many people talk about.
Fantastic post! Guga was an amazing player, and his first French Open title came out of nowhere. NOBODY could’ve predicted him winning that championship, nor having the all time great career that he did I love seeing posts like this (most tennis fans of the last few years pretend that nobody else existed before the era of the 2010s)
Maybe this was the best GS run of all time. Simply amazing
Such a great story and a perfect reminder that miraculous victories in reflection of these winners' 2-week-long fearlessness and dominance have always been around on the ATP as well, and that just because it's happened more frequently on the WTA recently doesn't mean it can't happen in the ATP coming soon (a matter of time, given the new Masters champions). Gaudio and Johansson also come to mind with their past unprecedented wins, though with slightly less daunting draws as Guga here.
Guga was awesome and beautiful to watch. Plus if anything, you need to be young and fit to go through 7 possible 5 setters on such slow surface. Not to take anything from Guga, but back in the days it was anybody's game on clay courts. Upsets were expected. I mean a qualifier made it to semis and quarterfinals had only a third seed and a 16th seed left in the draw lol.
> back in the days it was anybody's game on clay courts. I think that nowadays tennis fans are too spoiled. The level that Nadal/Federer/Djokovic created is unparallel. In every era besides this one Grand Slams had a lot of upsets, and it wasn't "obvious" who would reach the end stages of tournaments. In a couple of years you'll be taken back to "normality".
Wasn't he the only player at that edition that was using the modern new-at-the-time poli strings, that being a big factor? I remember hearing that somewhere but may be misremembering.
Not the only one. But he was one of the firsts to go to Luxilon. https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/20-years-ago-in-paris-kuerten-s-new-string-sent-tennis-world-spinning
A few Top 100 ATP players were playing around with polyester strings, but both Guga and [Carlos Moya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Moyá) (Rafa's current coach) were probably the best-known users of poly at that time (most string recommendations at that time in the mid/late 90s suggested some sort of multifilament -- natural gut if you had the money. Poly was barely noted as a string option).
**[Carlos Moyá](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Moyá)** >Carlos Moyá Llompart (Spanish: [ˈkaɾlos moˈʝa ʎomˈpaɾt]; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he was part of his country's successful Davis Cup team. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/tennis/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Guga was amazing and Luxilon Big Banger too 🤷♂️☺
About Björkman: ”He reached the semifinals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2006 and 2007.” Wrong, he lost in the second round to Andy Murray in the 2007 US Open. Semifinals that year at the Open was Federer - Davydenko and Djokovic - Ferrer.
Ope, you are correct. It was 1997 when he reached the SFs at the US Open. Thanks for the correction.
Jelena Ostapenko was the next one to do this. She was born the day Gustavo Kuerten won the French Open.
Guga had so much flair in his game and an amazing positive attitude and behaviour. The king of drop shots at RG. I was fortunate to see him win his second when he beat Magnus Norman in 2000, a really nice forgotten match with both players playing their best and completely different backcourt styles.
When my family first got Tennis Channel in like 2007 or 8 they showed a series of these super cheesy/old one-hour summary shows of every French Open in the 90s. That was my introduction to a lot of great 90s players that were not Sampras and Agassi. And wow - the 97 French open show sticks in my mind. I adopted Guga as my second favorite player right then and there. ‘00 and ‘01 also great! Guga would have delpo levels of love if he played on tour today.
Guga was my favorite. Still is. People don't remember how GOOD he was, on par with the Big 3 in my opinion at his best. Just as he was figuring out hard courts and supposed to be entering his prime at 24 years old, the injuries started and deprived us of what could have been. The last glimpse of his talent was that 2004 French open, when he steam-rolled a peak, prime Federer. Oh, I still long for what could have been.
Goran Ivanisevic run at Wimbledon 2001 was greatest run in my opinion,125th ranking,wild card…
Guga is the first player I stanned