Bruguera Aims To Win Third French Hopes To Put End To Tourney Upsets By Beating 66th-Ranked Kuerten

After two weeks of upsets and surprises, beaten favorites and unknown qualifiers, the French Open has a chance to return to a level of normalcy if Sergi Bruguera wins his third title today.

But if 66th-ranked Gustavo Kuerten wins, he will become the lowest ranked men’s champion in French Open history.

He will move up to around No. 20 in the rankings no matter how he does today.

Kuerten is the sixth unseeded player in the Open era to make it to the men’s final. Only two non-seeds have ever won the French Open, Marcel Bernard in 1946 and Mats Wilander in 1982.

Kuerten already has beaten the last two French Open champions, Thomas Muster and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Now he has a chance to add Bruguera, the 1993 and 1994 champion, to the list.

With tennis becoming more a power game rather than the patience required on the red clay of Roland Garros, the French Open has produced a number of champions who have been unable to win elsewhere.

Witness Michael Chang, Andres Gomez, Muster and Kafelnikov. All of them have won the French Open over the last 10 years but none has won another Grand Slam title.

Kuerten did not need to play his best tennis to beat Belgian qualifier Filip Dewulf in Friday’s semifinals.

Bruguera defeated Australia’s Patrick Rafter 6-7 (8-6), 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) in the other semifinal. Once No. 3 in the world in August 1994, he has not won a tournament since then.

Bruguera did make a comeback of sorts at the Atlanta Olympics, taking the silver medal. He was runner-up to Muster in the Lipton tournament at Key Biscayne, Fla. in March.

Kuerten has not won anything before except challenger events.