It was just what the men`s tour organisers had dreamed about - and Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten handed it to them in Lisbon yesterday when he won a thrilling race to the line to win the inaugural ATP champions race in the very last match of the season. Kuerten, who had been troubled by a hamstring problem all week, had already spent four months at the head of the race earlier in the year after dominating the claycourt season to work up a head of steam by winning the Hamburg Masters Series and a second Roland Garros title, the first coming in 1997.
But even the man from Florianapolis thought that US Open champion and budding megastar Marat Safin would beat him to the line after the Russian star moved into pole position three weeks ago and won the Paris Masters Series. When push came to shove Kuerten, who until yesterday had never won a final at any venue with a roof on, had two mountains blocking his path to the summit.
One was called Pete Sampras, six times the end-of-season champion, five times an ATP world championship winner and a winner of a record 13 Grand Slams. The man they call Guga beat him in three pulsating sets but a second obstacle remained in the shape of last year`s year-end champion Andre Agassi, the man who knocked Kuerten over in the round robin phase last tuesday.
Not since Michael Chang`s heroics at Toronto in 1990 had anyone ever beaten Sampras and Agassi back to back. Bureau Report