No 1 Club
On this day: Kuerten hits No. 1 after Masters Cup magic in Lisbon
Brazilian defeated Agassi on final day of 2000 season to seal rise to top spot
December 04, 2025
Henri Szwarc/Bongarts/Getty Images
Gustavo Kuerten closed 2000 with four consecutive Top 10 wins to finish the year as World No. 1.
By Andy West
It may take 12 months of hard work to reach No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, but Gustavo Kuerten’s rise to top spot will forever be associated with a hectic 48 hours in Lisbon.
Competing at the 2000 Nitto ATP Finals (then known as the Tennis Masters Cup), Brazilian star Kuerten pulled off back-to-back victories against a pair of American greats to seal the tournament trophy, his first rise to World No. 1, and ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours — all in one swoop.
Incumbent No. 1 Marat Safin headed into the prestigious season finale needing three match wins to guarantee he held onto top spot, but he finished his campaign one victory short after losing to Pete Sampras (in the group stage) and Andre Agassi (in the semi-finals). The door was ajar for Kuerten, but the Brazilian now faced the same opponents as Safin, only in reverse: if he could beat Sampras in the semi-final and Agassi in the final, the No. 1 spot was his.
Roared on by an adoring Lisbon crowd, Kuerten somehow overcame the physical issues that plagued him all week in Portugal to pull off a pair of memorable victories. He rallied from a set down in the best-of-three semi-final to defeat Sampras, before riding a wave of emotion to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 championship-match triumph against Agassi.
Kuerten’s Lisbon triumph was his fifth tour-level title of the 2000 season. He triumphed on his favoured clay in Santiago, at the ATP Masters 1000 in Hamburg, and at Roland Garros, where he reclaimed the major title he had first won in 1997. He also won the first ATP Tour hard-court crown of his career in Indianapolis and reached further Masters 1000 finals in Miami and Rome, respectively, en route to a 63-22 record for the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
Kuerten therefore had plenty of fond memories from the 2000 season alone, not to mention from the rest of his career. Yet even after finishing his playing days as a three-time Roland Garros champion who enjoyed 43 weeks overall as World No. 1, he recognises his Lisbon heroics were something special.
“As a tennis player, nothing could be higher than becoming No. 1 at the [Tennis Masters Cup], beating Pete and then Andre back-to-back,” Kuerten, who is the only South American to have claimed ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours, later said. “This is the highlight of my career by far.”
