Dateline: 12/03/00

Gustavo Kuerten had to defeat Andre Agassi in today's Masters Cup final in Lisbon to overtake Marat Safin for the number one ranking for the year 2000. Agassi entered the final on a hot streak, having won his previous matches easily, but Kuerten produced a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 masterpiece.

Kuerten hit 50 winners and 19 aces to Agassi's 7 and 15, respectively. Agassi had seven break opportunities, but on each one, Kuerten came up with an exceptional serve or groundstroke. Kuerten's backhand was finding the deep corners and, along with his inside-out forehands, the side pockets (corners of the service boxes). Agassi tried to mix in with his usual powerful drives an assortment of higher, more topspun balls, angles, and net approaches, but the only shots that showed any tendency to bother Kuerten were balls that bounced quite low.

Agassi tried to wear Kuerten down by running him, but Kuerten covered the court with unusual ease. He often managed to turn the tables on Agassi in mid-point, converting a defensive situation into an offensive opportunity. Both players hit lots of sharply angled groundstrokes, which made the match particularly entertaining. Agassi tried taking a few returns very early, then backing up for others, but Kuerten's serve often had exceptional angle, too, and as Agassi commented in his post-match interview, Kuerten's serve was very difficult to read.

The semifinal field for this Masters Cup featured the four Grand Slam winners of the year. Kuerten had won the French Open and Agassi the Australian Open. Pete Sampras, Kuerten's semifinal opponent, had won Wimbledon, and Marat Safin, who could have locked up the number one ranking by beating Agassi in their semi, had won the U.S. Open.

The tournament didn't quite plan to have these four in the semis, but its unusual format helped create that result. The entry rules are a little complicated, but basically the world's top seven players, plus the eighth ranked or one other Grand Slam winner of that year, get to enter. The other four this year were Magnus Norman, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Lleyton Hewitt, and Alex Corretja. The players start with round robins in two groups of four, then single elimination in the semifinals and, of course, the final. All matches but the final are best of three sets.

Kuerten left no uncertainty about earning the year's number one ranking by taking out both Agassi and Sampras in this season finale. He defeated Sampras 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-4 after Sampras had played superbly against Marat Safin in the round robin. Safin made the semifinal despite his loss to Sampras, and he would have retained the number one ranking despite losing there to Agassi 6-3, 6-3 if Kuerten had not won the final.

Gustavo Kuerten is the first Brazilian ever to win the world's year-end number one ranking. The Lisbon crowd, reflecting Brazil's close ties to Portugal, was ecstatic about his performance. I must say I was pretty pleased, too. Kuerten seems to have a gentle, friendly disposition, and his game is as entertaining as any. Following the match today, he said he hopes to inspire a surge of tennis interest in Brazil. I'd be willing to bet that Brazilian kids will be lining up for every tennis court in the country tomorrow.

Do you think "Guga" will carry this level of performance into the Australian Open next month? Join our forum discussion.

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