Florianópolis (Brasil), 1976

By Equipe Latinoamericana

The greatest Brazilian tennis player of all time, Kuerten started his meteoric career in 1995, and with just a few years of professionalism, he unexpectedly won the Roland-Garros title in France in 1997.

Affectionately called Guga, he began playing tennis at the age of six. He lost his father at the age of eight and was coached from the age of fourteen – and until 2005 – by Larri Passos, who convinced him to turn professional. A specialist on clay courts, he reached the peak of his career in 2000 and 2001, when he led the ATP singles ranking for 44 weeks and won two more titles at Roland-Garros (in addition to winning several other important titles and leading the Brazilian team to the semifinals of the Davis Cup).

In 2002, suffering from severe pain caused by a muscle imbalance in his right hip, which had already been bothering him the previous year, he underwent the first of two surgeries. Upon his return to the courts, he could no longer maintain the quality of his game, falling in the world ranking.

He said goodbye to the sport on the stage that made him famous, the central court of Roland-Garros. On the morning of May 25, 2005, a Sunday, in the first round of the French tournament, he lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu, bidding farewell to tennis.