In the tournament of symbols and messages to be displayed on the Roland Garros central court, Guga Kuerten has drawn one that will be burnt into the memory of Parisians. A huge heart, taking up all the space in his own half. And he, the Brazilian who, with this third success, has caught up with the legendary Wilander and Lacoste, lay down like them on the red clay at the end of the victorious closing match with Corretja. A meaningful gesture, maybe somewhat studied but certainly heartfelt, which successfully summarises the vexed path to glory of the Florianpolis boy. Indeed, this is not the first time that, during a match which had almost been lost, the future champion has blossomed as if by magic; tennis occasionally has in store wonders such as this, which however others are to experience as a nightmare for the rest of their career. And surely the American Michael Russell will not easily forget that Sunday afternoon when he almost ousted the reigning champion. He may not even wish to tell the story to his future grandchildren. Because that is what tennis players are like; when they get a great opportunity and waste it, they are not satisfied with saying: “At least I was there”. Russell wasn’t simply there, but he had a match point that could have enabled him to send the new national hero back to Brazil. But a Kuerten, who had been unrecognisable till then, was just about to produce, like a juggler, his showpiece, that is an accelerated backhand stroke completed at the net. It is a matter of seconds between shaking hands with a rival and preparing to receive the celebrations for the day and finding yourself reached and then beaten on points. The opportunity slips out of your hands and after a few seconds you find yourself facing another challenge, a match within the match, which usually puts back on the rails a man who had been cornered up to a moment earlier. This is a subtle and cruel psychological mechanism, which clicks in the mind of those who become suddenly aware of having missed the fleeting moment. From that point, in the qualifying heats, when he was incredibly saved at the last moment, Kuerten actually restarted his own tournament. And when the people in Paris saw him with his arms raised on the next Sunday, they could not but view Guga’s threadlike figure like that of a person saved through a “racket” miracle. Kuerten has won in Pairs for the second successive year, by displaying a bent for suffering and self-control, a merit that had not been recognized by everybody. This as far as the agonistic aspect is concerned; but now in Brazil he is also viewed as the new sporting point of reference. First of all, the personal element; Guga’s family situation is not among the easiest. When he was 8 years old, his dad Aldo, occasionally acting as an umpire, asked him to accompany him on several tournaments. He wanted his son to gradually enter the tennis world, by experiencing the atmosphere of the first official matches. Kuerten junior immediately adapted, and started playing mini-matches with his own contemporaries. During one of these, he was suddenly interrupted by the cries of his grandmother Olga, former tennis player herself: his father had had a heart attack. To overcome the shock, Gustavo devoted himself to sport full time and he was lucky enough to meet the person who was to become, and still is, his personal coach, Larry Passos, a father figure whom Kuerten himself described as “the most important man in my career”. He was the man who for instance, in 1999, enabled him to overcome a fit of depression following the Davis Cup match with Corretja. At that time, Guga was mentally prepared to give up tennis and take up a medical career at university. And possibly, for a moment, the willingness emerged to fight another painful aspect of his life, the one relating to his younger brother Guillerme, who was mentally handicapped. But in essence it was just a matter of choosing with which weapons to fight. Guga, by professing great maturity and openness, opted for tennis in an attempt to fight and leave everything behind himself, but without ever forgetting his origins. This is why, after each match he wins, he still now allocates a fixed sum of money to an association founded by him to deal with disabled people. So his popularity grew hand in hand with his moral stature and readiness to help his fellowmen. Kuerten, in the same way as other great Brazilian sportsmen, such as Ronaldo, Pelè and the unlucky Senna, is also a champion because of his endeavours outside his sporting activities.Behind that slender and lean physique stands out the figure of an absolute leading character, a young man who will be 25 in September; but he became a man several seasons ago, maybe at the time in which another surprising event, his first victory in Paris in 1997, forced him to suddenly grow up also as an athlete. Indeed, in order to handle the enormous pressure exercised by the media, especially domestically, Guga is the only tennis player who avails himself of a personal press agent, Ms Diana Galbanji, who hardly ever accepts the interviews requested by reporters. The only unpleasant aspect of this Brazilian phenomenon. (traduzione Interpres sas - Giussano)