Até a vista Guga

If you are wondering, the title of this blog means "Good Bye Guga". Guga is how Gustavo Kuerten is popularly known as. I live in a cricket crazy nation and cricket is my favorite sport, however French Open is my favorite sports tournament. French Open is different. It shows the "class" of a tennis player. Other surfaces are all about boom-boom tennis but one cannot win the Roland Garros with just a bazooka serve (of course, Roger Federer is an artist on any surface). One has to "serve and rally" and really fight for each point on the clay. Over the years, most of my favorite tennis players have been good clay court players.....Carlos Moya, Marcelo Rios, Thomas Muster, Sergi Bruguera, Guga and now Rafa.

In 1997, an unknown player from Brazil (at least I was seeing him for the first time though it was his second appearance in the French Open) came to Roland Garros. He was different....he had curly hair, a thin frame, was dressed in yellow and blue (Brazilian football team uniform).... honestly he looked more like a drug addict than a tennis player. But he could play. He had killer ground strokes. He used to go for every ball even if it looked impossible to reach and surprisingly he used to reach them!!!

Armed with an infectious smile, it was very difficult to dislike Guga. I started liking him and wanted him to win. Guga did not let me down and he won the French Open!!! If I am not mistaken then he was ranked 66th in the world at that moment!!! After winning the grand slam, Guga came to the stage and shyly said, "Now the toughest part.....talk..."

Guga won two more French Open titles in 2000 and 2001. He spent 43 weeks at the top of the ATP rankings. His game was suited for the clay courts and he hardly won anything on other surfaces, except a couple of tournaments here and there on hard court. His career was plagued with injuries and his career virtually ended after the right hip injury and subsequent surgery in 2002. (Ya, he did beat Roger Federer to reach the quarterfinals in 2004). This year, he came back for his farewell tour....a farewell that he deserved. He might have lost in straight sets in the first round but this loss ended in a standing ovation. A tribute to a champion player and a great personality. We will all miss you Guga.