How could anyone forget such a charismatic and entertaining player, who seemed to be a really nice guy as well .....
Although he had the reputation of being the King of Clay, he had a very good indoor and hard court record for someone who took such huge swings at the ball. He also got to the Wimbledon quarters a few years ago, goodness knows how.
I fear that at 30, and plagued by injury for years, he won't ever do anything much again. But what a story if he could win the French Open ...
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"Where Ratty leads - the rest soon follow" (Professor Henry Brubaker - The Institute of Studies)
Yeah strange to think that he came from know where to win the French Open....great story and turned out to be a great talent. It just a shame that he faded so quickly. I can't believe he is 30. He seems like a great guy.
He had some great matches with Henman over the years too. I still remember a real rollercoaster of a match in Cincy some five or six years ago, in fact two...one Henman won and the other Kuerten won. Both matches were on ESPN and a joy to watch.
Montana Doug wrote: Yeah strange to think that he came from know where to win the French Open....great story and turned out to be a great talent. It just a shame that he faded so quickly. I can't believe he is 30. He seems like a great guy.
He had some great matches with Henman over the years too. I still remember a real rollercoaster of a match in Cincy some five or six years ago, in fact two...one Henman won and the other Kuerten won. Both matches were on ESPN and a joy to watch.
Same here, I can't believe he's 30 either ! Hadn't realised that he was only in his early 20s when he won RG in 2000 and 2001. He had that amazing match with Michael Russell back in RG 1997 when he was on the brink of defeat and went on to win the title, one of the few players to have come back from match point down and then won a slam.
I also remember the 5 set thriller he had with Greg in 2001, Greg won 9-7 in the 5th I think, was lucky enough to watch that one live. Guga was the top seed that year, thought Greg would go really deep but unfortunately he didn't play a particularly good match against Clement in rd4 and lost in straights.
Ratty wrote: Although he had the reputation of being the King of Clay, he had a very good indoor and hard court record for someone who took such huge swings at the ball. He also got to the Wimbledon quarters a few years ago, goodness knows how.
Yeah he won the masters cup I think against a field which contained the likes of Sampras, Agassi, Hewitt, Rafter etc.
He took a set off Rafter in the Wimbledon quarters too
