On the eve of the start of Roland Garrosthe Brazilian tennis player Gustavo Kuerten is one of the first names that come to mind, mainly for the Latin American continent, a product of the unforgettable moments that he gave in Paris, where he raised his three titles grand slam.
“Guga” would secure a privileged place on the French brick dust with just 20 yearsin the edition of 1997when he still had no trophies in his record and would surprise the world as number 66 in the rankingprevailing over the Czech Slava Dosedel (73°), to Swedish Jonas Bjorkman (23rd), to the Austrian Thomas Muster (5th), the Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev (20th), the Russian Yegveny Kafelnikov (3rd), to the Belgian Philip Dewulf (122°) and to Spanish Sergi Bruguera (19th) to inaugurate their showcases and rise to the 15th rank.
However, the one born in Florianópolis, Santa Caterina, would not be satisfied with such a feat and would go for more history in 2000already located in the fifth position of the organization and established as one of the top entertainers of the circuit, dispatching the Swede Andreas Vinciguerra (53rd), Argentine Marcelo Charpentier (230°), to the American Michael Chang (33°), to the Ecuadorian Nicolas Lapentti (11th), again to Russian Kafelnikov (4th), to Spanish Juan Carlos Ferrero (16°) and Swedish Magnus Norman (3rd) to raise your third trophy of the seasonafter Santiago and Hamburg, and climb two places in the classification.
Already the absolute leader of the planet, the charismatic right-hander would become the sixth player during the Open Era to successfully defend the title in it Major Frenchman, in 2001, an opportunity in which he would defeat the albicelestes Guillermo Coria (25°) and Agustín Calleri (74°), to the Moroccan Karim Alami (109th), to the North American Michael Russell (122°), once again at Kafelnikov (7th) now Ferrero (4th), and to Spanish Alex Corretja (13th) to maintain the top and head towards his most successful season on the circuit.
Consequently, Kuerten’s legend at Roland Garros does not admit discrepanciesbecause at that time he became the third South American to proclaim himself there, joining the Argentine Guillermo Vilas (1977) and the Ecuadorian Andrés Gómez (1990), a group that would later be joined by the albiceleste Gastón Gaudio (2004), totaling 36 wins and eight defeats in 11 shares.
