Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten, popularly known as "Guga," was born on September 10, 1976 in Florianopolis, Brazil. Florianopolis is a city of 270,000 people on the island of Santa Catarina off of the Brazilian coast. He is the second of three sons born to Aldo Amadeu and Alice Kuerten. His father owned an aluminum siding business and his mother was a social worker. Both parents enjoyed

Gustavo Kuerten

playing tennis and encouraged their sons to do the same. Aldo Kuerten was also an avid basketball player.

Aldo Kuerten taught his young sons to play tennis. Guga started playing when he was only six years old. Two years later his father tried to get former Brazilian tennis player Larri Passos to coach his son. According to John Gustafson of the Chicago Sun-Times, Passos told Kuerten, "One day, but not now. He's too young. He has to enjoy his life, play football and other sports." Just one year later, when Guga was nine years old, his father was umpiring a juniors tennis match and died suddenly of a heart-attack at only forty-one years old. The eldest son, Rafael, had to quit playing tennis so that he could help support the family.

In 1989 when Guga was thirteen, Passos kept his promise to Aldo Kuerten and began to coach his son. He liked Guga's carefree spirit, but he helped him improve his concentration on the court. He also made him change his two-handed backhand to a smoother onehanded shot. Passos also frequently traveled to Europe with Kuerten to expose him to international competition. Passos became a surrogate father to Kuerten and he is credited not only with Kuerten's success as a tennis player, but also with his good-natured disposition and healthy perspective on life.