Gustavo Kuerten

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.

Miscellaneous

• Height: 1.91 m (6'3 ft)
• He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
• His elder brother, Rafael Kuerten, looks after his business matters.
• He is the only non-North American tennis player to have appeared in the finals of all 4 Tennis Masters Series Events played in the subcontinent (Indian Wells, Miami, Toronto/Montreal and Cincinnati).
• Fastest serve: 212 km/h (at the Gstaad Open, in 1999)
• Plays: Right-handed with a one-handed backhand.
• Kuerten has not gone a year without at least one title since 1997.
• 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 Ivanisevic 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 a third place, when in 2005 both Joachim Johansson, of Sweden, and Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia, scored 51 aces in their respective matches.