Thursday, May. 21, 2009
Kuerten/Norman — 2000
The protracted, multiple-stroke rallies of clay court tennis can ratchet up the tension during tight matches to almost unbearable levels. So it was in this three-hour 44-minute match in which Gustavo Kuerten, the gangly Brazilian, raced out to a two set lead before losing the third set to the relatively unheralded Swede Magnus Norman. In the forth set, Kuerten lost ten match points before eventually clinching victory 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (6) in a match that one journalist later wrote was "as much an ordeal as a spectacle."