How Gustavo Kuerten Changed Tennis Forever
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- In 1997, a little known Brazilian named Gustavo Kuerten won the French Open and changed the course of tennis history. His secret weapon? Luxilon, a new poly string.
#luxilon #poly #strings
Of course gears matter, but Guga was an absolut beast and no string in the world can't make you have that gorgeous backhand. He was a great and deserved multi-Slam champion and World Number 1
Only specialist on clay, didnt even make through QF in the other 3 Grand Slams. Maybe a great player, but not a versatile world number 1
@@anseinueseima408 he had problems with injuries after that
Attributing the wins of Gustavo Kuerten to his choice of strings is just lazy.
I don't think the video suggests that.... Guga was a great player, but the strings and the timing of their introduction certainly contributed to his success, don't you think?
@@Left-Foot-Brake Thanks for you answer and for that I excuse you for the "lazy" in my comment. I can admit that it might have increased in a minimum, the quality of the gear, but associating this fact to Guga´s victory, even involuntarily, creates this result in your video. The change was not exclusively available to him, and if it was, pioneering a new technology may be seen as a handicap, instead of just an advantage.
I think what he means is Guga just happened to be using them at a time before they became mainstream and they gave him an edge in his victory, but the strings don't make the player, especially considering he won two other French Opens and the Masters Cup - so it was no fluke. They are not the reason he won, but they certainly enhanced his ability to play his best tennis: that is what the video was trying to say, in my opinion.
It was the first tournament he ever won, he barely won matches
@@willnill7946 Yeah,right! Probably he has not win many matches to get to the point where he was.
Similar arguments can be made for technological advancements aiding the more Serve-Reliant players of the Sampras era, and before.
I remember Guga being a great shotmaker. He was a great player. I don’t care what made this possible.
Gustavo still beat federer when federer was already using his current setup. Agassi exaggerated in his book because gustavo kicked his ass and he wanted an excuse for not being the best anymore. The copoly strings actually changed tennis a bit but gustavo was a formidable player and anyone who thinks he won because of the strings doesnt really understand how tennis works. Djokovic would probably still beat a lower ranked player in the top 30 using an old setup if he got used to it. The gear is about 0.1%. Unfortunately people think they can play a lot better if a certain type of racquet because of heavy marketing. That’s not how it works….
Agassi also lost vs Ferrero in French Open.
Agassi the cocaine sniffer LOL
Brilliant illustration of how it's really been *strings* more so than racquets that have changed the game over the last 20+ years. Well done!
The other point was tension, much lower than in the 90’s
A combination of strings and slowing of courts and heavier balls equal elimination of serve and volley tennis. Even with those strings, you need to slow the courts because without that, the balls would not bounce high the way they do at Wimbledon now. In order to use those extreme western grips, you need high balls. Without that scenario, you cannot play baseline tennis on natural undoctored grass. The exception was Borg, who simply shortened his swing and came in. If you notice, neither Nadal or Joker did very well there until the surface was sufficiently slowed down. Now, when I watch Wimbledon, to me, it looks even slower than the French and the balls are bouncing in some cases, shoulder length.
@@JamesHarris-hl2bm i think the ball modification in wimbledon came after the worst final ever between sampras and ivanisevich. I remember how terrible was to watch this game, because the ballspeed was so intense both player cannot return the ball and keep more than 2 ballchanges
@@BRtrekking Actually, the ball change was a good idea, but allowing the courts too much, which was done, is the real problem. There should still be fear courts to balance things out. A great player should be able to make the adjustment and if not, you just don't win on that surface. The way things stand now is only those who grew up on the dirt are being catered to. Everything is being adjusted to accommodate their extreme western grip. That's got to be murder on a person's arm.
@@JamesHarris-hl2bm
baseliner has been good on all surface agassi is prime example. Serve and volley never worked on pre 1996 clay those clay were slower if those clay got back launched now nadal would be 400-10.
Loved Guga, fantastic player. As a side note as someone who was a nationally ranked junior in the early to mid 80’s nothing has changed tennis as much as poly strings. After burning out, I gave up tennis for 20+ years. When I started playing again about 10 years ago I was shocked how much faster the game was. I tried full poly setup and instantly loved amount of spin and control I was getting even with taking huge cuts at the ball. Gut/poly hybrids are great as well. If you are not playing poly in least a hybrid at a high level, you are at a disadvantage.
Full poly gave me a tennis elbow
very interesting but more about "How Luxilon Changed Tennis Forever" + it does sound a bit like Guga's success is mainly due to the strings and that's impossible to say and probably a stretch
At the same time that it is said that Guga’s strings helped to end serve and volley it’s important to remember that Guga, supposedly the pioneer of poly strings, struggled enormously against serve and volleyers, in particular against big servers like the Wayne Arthurses and Max Mirnyis of life.
Guga was a beast on his own, but he was far from being a serve and volleyer’s nightmare. What killed serve and volley, together with the strings, was racquet size, grip changings and most of all tampering with heavier balls (which interact better with more spin-friendly strings) and slower courts, because people think that grueling baseline battles are more entertaining than a netrushing showdown. Serve and volley in not even taught anymore
Playing Max at the US Open he was two sets down. After winning the other 3 making Max look like a kid. beat Safin at Indianapolis. Cincinnati played two of the best servr and volley players the same day. Winning the semi against the English player and Rafter on the final. He was becoming an all around player, if was not the injury bet he would win at least one US and a couple more French
Guga stood far from base line on return. This is not suited agains serve and volley players expecially on fast surface.
Guga had modern strokes, he would play better in modern time
Right but who today play serve and volley. Think tese days are gone, sucks because was way better to watch
@@thebigmonstaandy6644 True he played on his return way far from the baseline. Now after returning he would play close to the line
Nadal,Wawrinka ruturning also far from baseline@@markriobr
Sure. Gustavo Kuerten won 3 Grand Slams and 1 Finals due to Luxilon strings. Of course. 🙄
Are we simply going to ignore that the 2000 Masters Cup in Lisbon, the surface (hard court) was slowed down to suit baselines, and played against Sampras? At the 1999 Masters Cup in Hannover, Sampras easily beat Kuerten 6-2, 6-3 because the surface played fast (carpet), and suited his game. Kuerten used the same Luxilon Big Banger strings, but couldn't do a thing about Sampras' attacking game.
The Big Banger did start the string revolution, but the speed of courts has been slowed down to the point where grass plays as slow as a hard court, and carpets have been completely banned.
I beat Andre back in 1985 when we were both elite protégés of Nick and he NEVER could hit hard like he did once he was on tour full time. Sure it’s repetition and experience, but having the right string and racket set up for each individual players and their tastes and game style make a huge difference. I can see why he played differently after using Luxilon. I just tried Alu Power this week for the first time and immediately I hit 25% harder, more precision, and spin when I wanted it and totally give credit to using this string for it. If only Nick knew about polys back then…but we only used natural gut and at high tensions. But I played Chip Hooper back then and I heard lately that he used polys back then…hmm. Wow. Strings never seemed important back then…only rackets. Ok. Here comes some fun for me next time I play. Thanks for a great video.
Thank you for sharing
Pena que a carreira do Guga foi curta. Mesmo assim acrescentou demais ao tennis.
Not only did guga bring in the string he started the small 4 1/4 grip with 2 tourna grips !
Roger then copied him and went from a 4 1/2 to 4 3/8.
This allowed the wrist to snap through the impact points making the snap at the ball !
Guga had fhe best inside the court single hander passing shots of all time!
Can you explaine it. i have also 4 1/2 but it is to big for me.i habe basic and overgrip.
That should be a 1 hour documentary. Great work
Passing shots against net players became routine with cheatalon. As well as the topspin lob. But Guga was not a mere journeyman.
Guga Forever! Nosso Manezinho da Ilha 🇧🇷
I always beat Guga as a teenager during practice but as we grew he became stronger and bigger and completely dominated me. I feel proud to have coached and guided him to reach the level that he achieved
Astel? LIC? Lira?
Excellent analysis/video.
Absolutely fantastic video..... these are the insights I have been looking for! Thankyou SO much, man.
Fantastic video! Nice work!
Total B.S as most of Guga's opponenets were playing with the same type of string. It is his talent, playing style and heart that won him the title just as Sampras took the U.S Open in 1990 and Becker took Wimbledon in 1985
Guga was also the first tennis player with great forehand and great one handed backhand
Lendl and Becker as well as Muster deserve to be mentioned.
Well made video! Good entertainment.
Great work!
Very clear explaination
Guga
Great job
The Strings???? Oh jeez
Guga n'a pas gagné grâce à des cordages de raquettes ! Il gagnait parce qu'il était un excellent joueur !
With or without new strings Guga was a beast , a legend if you want to, beautiful and loose tennis no matter what the score were in any kind of matches , humble and tempered man , all respect!!
Guga Mito!!
My next door neighbor used to beat Guga until 1996, one year before he won his first Roland garros
Life is a trade off - the number of wrist injuries in top players is probably due to a combination of rally lengths and poly strings. IMHO the number of injuries will swing the pendulum back to lighter balls and faster surfaces, except on clay.
Good video, but I really hate statements like the one of Andre Agassi. It was just the unwillingness to change, that some of the 90s tennis greats did not realize what was going on on the market. Poly strings were absolutely common in the 90s in german amateur tennis. And everybody here started to play them. You know why? Because they were dirt cheap! Like a third to a sixth of the price of natural strings. But because everyone was playing them there was a rapid evolution and by 1994-1995 these strings were getting extremely good and so much better then the natural strings. You could feel it. Aspiring youth players changed to poly much earlier because they had the direct comparison. And it shaped the way the game was played. Heavy Topspin became the norm. Kuerten was just one of the first on the big stage to show this. That Agassi tried poly strings in 2002 is laughable. I bet he could have tried them at least in the late 90s, no problem. But he didn't and that is on him!
Great insight and totally agree with all of your points
Perhaps but Agassi won GS on all surfaces and he won GS before and after Kuerten did. Hence a much greater player. For me at least.
Murray never won rg ..
Whats the point of discussing him ??
Guga had modern strokes wih ta lot of spin and Agassi had semimodern flat strokes.i also play tennis and i can remember , that i and my mates used polystrings in 96.that was not a secret.
Strings??? Says Agassi who was addicted to meth. 🤷♀️
Agassi exaggerated in his book, but that does not mean the poly strings did not change the game....they did...
PdB - Punto de Break - channel talked about this early.
pure ad!
sponsored by strings manufactures.... For sure the strings will make your racquet play fully automatic..... : D
💚
without poly strings nadal wouldnt even existed as a clay player or in other words give me nadal racquet with poly strings and him a wood racquet with gut and i would kick his ass on any clay court. I am ntrp5 and play in amateur tournamnets every week end.
O cant stop laughing. I need to take some air. Sorry, man.
@@leonardoaraujo8364 u laugh because u never played with a wood racquet, also ntrp 5 is advanced tennis player.
delusional...
@agradina I have so I get that but 5.0 players hit shots that you can visually follow. Pro's, especially the stronger amongst the WTA/ATP players hit shots that are a blur up close. You wouldn't last a second against Nadal with a wooden racquet
Oh my god, I thought it was Guga talent. Thanks for letting me know that it was about the strings. Sampras cried several times. Maybe we would’ve win at least one Roland Garros. Unfortunately now no one talks about him anymore.
GUGA A MITH
Talking about Agassi ego... lol
Yeah... GK was only good because of the strings.... and Agassi because of his drinks and McEnroe because of his mouth.. yeah.. .
Guga is one of the first tennis players with modern agressiv strokes with a lot of spin.
No way strings make you a better player, you clearly can’t play the game!!
Lets face it. TENNIS would never get to be as big of a sport worldwide with SERVE and VOLLEY. I mean, aside of Curling it is the boring-est sport in history.
Serve and volley is very interesting to watch.