Roland Garros Re-Lived 1997: Allez Guga! Allez Guga!

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Sports & Recreation, Wimbledon, Sports

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Almost nobody had heard of Gustavo Kuerten when he entered Roland Garros in 1997, but everyone knew who he was when he walked away as the champion. So, how did he do it?

Kuerten tells us about the moment he first felt the love of the French fans, his difficult matches against Thomas Muster and Yevgeny Kafelnikov en route to the final, and just how much tennis still means to him.

We also hear from Sergi Bruguera, the runner-up that year, about what it was like to play against Kuerten and his memories of the final.

Then, New York Times journalist Christopher Clarey explains the buzz around Kuerten’s story that fortnight and why the 1997 French Open is one of his all-time favourites as a reporter.

Finally, we celebrate Kuerten’s career and his lasting impact on the sport.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, featuring Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments. It is crowdfunded by listeners each December.

* NEWSLETTER *

* ROLAND GARROS RE-LIVED *

We are producing daily shows throughout the original Roland Garros dates, looking back on 15 classic matches and stories from the tournament’s history. You can watch Gustavo Kuerten’s victory over Sergi Bruguera in the 1997 final on YouTube. This weekend, our focus will be on the 1999 edition of the French Open. On Saturday, we will be watching Steffi Graf vs. Martina Hingis, and on Sunday we will be going back to Andre Agassi vs. Andrei Medvedev. We will also be doing editions for Wimbledon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Mary Barthori.
0:02.0	I'm Matt Vylander. This is Mary Carillo.
0:04.1	I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm like Newt. I'm Andy Murray.
0:06.8	This is Janik Noah and you're listening to Tenys Podcast.
0:20.9	We're going back to 1997. Today on Rolangarros relived for a very special win
0:27.7	for a very special man. Somebody, frankly, would hardly heard of when he came into the tournament.
0:34.5	Is that fair to say, Catherine? Matt, I don't even know whether you were alive yet.
0:39.3	Matt, you were just about alive, but I mean, you certainly couldn't remember anything.
0:42.9	Let me learn the French oven.
0:44.9	I was alive, but I think I'd heard of my mum and my dad and my sister.
0:50.5	Right. Okay, Catherine, had you ever heard of Gustavo Curtin from Brazil?
0:55.6	Well, I can't recall. That was 1997, was pre-me getting into Tenys.
1:01.6	I was still grumpy about Tenys because it was my brother's sport.
1:07.4	I was still a couple of years off being on the precipice of being a tennis nerd.
1:15.3	But if his final opponent, Sergio Brughera hadn't really heard of him coming in,
1:20.3	then I rather suspect that none of the rest of us had, or if we claim to have,
1:27.4	then we'll be lying. What about you? I mean, it's probably more questions, more pertinent
1:34.1	for you because you're older than us. Yeah, that's true.
1:39.8	And I was in my second year at Queen's as a runner. I was part of the media team.
1:46.1	I'd been given a chance to work in tennis for the first time. I was still at university.
1:50.1	And I was following Tenys all the time. And yet, I had barely heard of him, to be honest.
1:56.7	And when I arrived at Queen's for the few days before the tournament,
	...

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