Unheralded Brazilian Jumps Into Paris Limelight
Gustavo Kuerten has arms and legs that flap around as if they were connected to his torso with Silly Putty.
His clothes are a mixture of bright blue, green and yellow that make you rub your eyes or try to adjust the color on your TV set.
If you saw Kuerten walk down the street, you would tell him to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair, shave and put his hat on straight.
But Kuerten would shrug and tell you, “I will not change. I can only be who I know.”
And who Kuerten is, is a 20-year-old from a Brazilian beach town called Florianopolis who played soccer until he was 14 and who is now an unseeded and unexpected finalist in the French Open.
Kuerten beat Belgian qualifier Filip Dewulf, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), in Friday’s first semifinal played under a hot sun on the red clay of Stade Roland Garros.
Dewulf had his own improbable run end. The 25-year-old was trying to become the first qualifier ever to reach a Grand Slam final.
On Sunday, Kuerten will play No. 16 seed and two-time French Open champion Sergi Bruguera, who somehow outlasted the serve-and-volley techniques of Australian Patrick Rafter, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1). This was a semifinal marked more by ugly misses than exquisite shot-making.
As Kuerten has marched through this draw, beating the defending champion, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and 1995 champion Thomas Muster, it has become easy to make comparisons to Boris Becker’s unlikely burst into prominence at Wimbledon in 1985, when Becker got the nickname “Boom-Boom” and won his first Grand Slam as a tumbling, red-headed teenager.
There is more to Kuerten than his goofy grin, his surfer’s tan and his outlandish clothes. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound string bean has a blazing backhand that singes the sidelines at times or cuts the court in half when he chooses to go crosscourt with it. Kuerten also has a sneaky way of hopping to the net at unexpected moments, where his volley is not at all tentative and most dangerous.
When the 2-hour, 14-minute match ended, Kuerten shook the sweat from his hair, looked at the sky and said, “I can’t believe it’s real. Maybe God is from Brazil.”
Dewulf, who is ranked No. 122 in the world and who had to win three qualifying matches to reach the main draw, just couldn’t handle the moment. In the fourth-set tiebreaker, Dewulf missed four easy forehands that had begged to be smashed for winners.
For Kuerten, who was ranked No. 66 in the world when the tournament started, there is the sense that something special might be starting.
The second semifinal was a battle of wills. Rafter, 24, who had been a finalist in Philadelphia at the Advanta Championships in February, came to the net at every chance, even after second serves, even when Bruguera was serving.
The weather has been warm and mostly sunny, so the clay is as fast as red clay can get. Bruguera likes to play standing 5 or 6 feet behind the baseline, grunting and putting top-spin on every shot. In the end, Rafter gave Bruguera too many chances to make dipping, passing shots.
Bruguera won back-to-back French Opens in 1993 and 1994, but the 26-year-old Spaniard hasn’t won a tournament in more than two years.