In the second week of the 1997 French Open, an unseeded twenty-year-old Brazilian named Gustavo Kuerten worked his way through a draw that included every one of the tournament's three most recent champions. He beat 1995 winner Thomas Muster in the third round, 1996 winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the quarterfinals, and 1993 and 1994 champion Sergi Bruguera in the final itself, winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Kuerten jumped from thirty-sixth in the world to fifteenth overnight, and became the first Brazilian man to win a Grand Slam singles title. What made the run more than a great two weeks was what was strung inside his racket: a Belgian-made polyester string called Luxilon, one of the first times the material had appeared at the sport's highest level.
The String Change That Reshaped Tennis More Than Any New Racket
