World on a String

Twenty years ago in Paris, Gustavo Kuerten used a new string that set the tennis world spinning.It hasn’t slowed down since.

- Stephen Tignor

The 1997 French Open final pitted a two-time Roland Garros champion, Sergi Bruguera, against an unknown 20-year old from Brazil named Gustavo Kuerten. Kuerten was ranked No. 66, and he hailed from a country that hadn’t produced a major champion in 30 years. But over the course of two weeks, the rail-thin kid with the roundhouse backhand had charmed the finicky French fans with his loose-limbed game and highly coordinated yellow-and blue outfits. By the time he had won three consecutive five-set matches, “Guga” had become a household name in Paris.

It didn’t take long on the final Sunday to see that Bruguera, for all of his clay-court cunning, would be powerless to stop the samba. Early in the match, Kuerten sent a topspin backhand deep into the court that kicked forward with more momentum than Bruguera had anticipated. Handcuffed,Bruguera could only bunt a forehand back. It was the start of a mercifully short afternoon for the Spaniard.

As far as revolutionary sports moments go, Kuerten’s furiously spinning backhand was one of the least dramatic. But few one-handers had ever been hit with so much snap and sizzle, and 20 years later, it’s clear that Guga’s victory represented a sea change in tennis, one that would transform the sport in the 21st century.

While Kuerten went on to win three French Opens and carve a heart in the terre battue, his Parisian story wasn’t all about love. It was also about something much duller: polyester. Not clothes, but strings. As he slid and smiled his way through Roland Garros, Kuerten had a new weapon inside his Head frame: a purple string called Luxilon Original. This ultra-stiff thread made from a polyester-like material gave him the freedom to swing as hard as he wanted, while also creating the topspin needed to keep the ball in. Nineteen years after the debut of the oversize racquet, tennis equipment had taken its next evolutionary step.