Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɡusˈtavu ˈkiʁtẽ]; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player.

Kuerten won 20 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including three majors at the French Open in 1997, 2000, and 2001, as well as the 2000 Tennis Masters Cup.

The pressure for him to become an "ambassador" for tennis in Brazil was made evident after his early defeat to a then unknown Marat Safin in the 1998 French Open: the entire body of Brazilian journalists that had been dispatched to Paris to cover the event immediately returned home, leaving the rest of the tournament unaccounted for in Brazil.

He won three Grand Slam titles, all of them at the French Open, played on the red clay courts of Roland Garros.

The tournament was only his third grand slam, setting a record for any player in the open era, tied with Mats Wilander.

Victories over former champions of the previous four French Opens – Thomas Muster (1995) in the third round in five sets, Yevgeny Kafelnikov (1996) in the quarterfinals in five sets and Sergi Bruguera (1993, 1994) in the final – make him the third-lowest ranked Grand Slam Champion (ranked 66th), and his victory led to him entering the Association of Tennis Professionals top 20.

When called to the stage to receive the winner's trophy, Kuerten reverently bowed a few times to his childhood idol Borg, who was waiting at the top of the stairs to shake his hand.

[4] He established himself as the leading clay court player of his generation in 1999, and he became one of three South Americans to complete the year in the top 10 in all the history of the ATP rankings.

In June he reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, losing to unseeded eventual runner-up Andriy Medvedev.

After another solid clay court swing, Kuerten won his second French Open title by defeating Magnus Norman (who had beaten him a few weeks earlier in the final of the Rome Masters) on his 11th match point.

[7][8] He also won the biggest hardcourt title of his career in August at the Cincinnati Masters, where he defeated Patrick Rafter in the final.

[10] In an injury-ridden year, Kuerten won one ATP Tour title, which he did at home, by winning the Brasil Open for the second time.

[11] This would remain the last time that Federer was defeated in any Grand Slam prior to the quarterfinals stage until his round 2 loss against Serhiy Stakhovsky at Wimbledon in 2013.

On 1 September Kuerten announced that he would be withdrawing from the ATP Tour for an indefinite period of time, in order to undergo detailed exams of his operated hip, which had reportedly started to bother him again.

Because Kuerten had been inactive in the Men's Tour since mid-February, he was not granted the wildcard to play, thus missing the French Open for the first time in his professional career.

Because his ranking was not high enough to qualify for ATP Tour tournaments, Kuerten relied on wild cards to enter those events.

On 25 May 2008, Gustavo Kuerten played his last professional singles match in front of 15,000 spectators at Roland Garros.

He arrived on court wearing his 'lucky' uniform, the same blue & yellow one that he wore in 1997 when he won his first French Open tournament.

[14] Kuerten embraced the baseline style of play, with heavy topspin on his ground strokes and a solid serve that enabled him to wear down his opponents from the back of the court.

[15][16][9] He was one of the earliest adopters to play with polyester strings which allowed him to swing for pace and at the same time create the topspin needed to control the ball.

[17] Kuerten was first called to play for Brazil in the Davis Cup in 1996, when he became the second-best ranked player in the country (to Fernando Meligeni).

The protest continued, and as a result, Brazil had to play the Repechage match again with a junior team, and was demoted to the American Group II for the 2005 season.

In 2012, after his retirement, he signed a sponsor deal with French brands Lacoste (for clothes) and Peugeot (for TV commercials).

[1] Kuerten was deeply affected by his brother's daily struggles, later donating the entire prize money from one tournament he has won every year of his professional career so far to a hometown NGO that provides assistance for people suffering from similar disabilities.

In 2000, he founded the Gustavo Kuerten Institute, a non-profit philanthropic association based in Florianópolis in support of children and disabled people.

[20][21] Since retirement he has settled down in his place of birth, the Brazilian island of Florianópolis, where he is an active member in the lakeside district of Lagoa da Conceição.

[22] Kuerten was accepted to a drama course at CEART, the Center of Arts of Santa Catarina State University (UDESC) in Florianópolis.

[25][26][27] In October 2016 he was in court for tax evasion, related to income earned from copyright and image rights between 1995 and 2002, and in November was ordered to pay 7 million R$ (appr.

[31] In 1998, 2002 and 2004 Kuerten received the Prix Orange Roland Garros Award for sportsmanship from the association of tennis journalists.

That same year he won the Mercosur Konex Award from Argentina as the best tennis player of South America in that decade.