Guga Refutes Retirement Rumors
From Tennis Week:
http://www.sportsmediainc.com/tennisweek/index.cfm?func=showarticle&newsid=1
0794&bannerregion=



Photo By Susan Mullane By Adrianna Outlaw
04/16/2004

Some players wear their hearts on their sleeves, Gustavo Kuerten
continues to craft his heart on the court. The charismatic Kuerten, who
celebrated his third French Open championship by carving a heart on the red
clay or Roland Garros, said playing tennis remains his primary passion.

Responding to rumors that he is contemplating retirement next year,
the former No. 1 stated he has no plans to conclude his competitive career
in the near future and will continue to play as long as he has a love of the
game.

"No, I am not retiring," Kuerten told the media in a press conference
conducted at his coach's academy, Larri Passos Tennis Pro, in Santa Catarina
yesterday. "The most important thing is that I love to play tennis, I love
to compete and I love to come here everyday and practice. As long as I feel
like this and I feel that I am able to play against the best players and
have new challenges, I will be playing."

One competition he will not be playing is Davis Cup.

The 27-year-old Kuerten has been a vocal critic of the Brazilian
Tennis Federation for its failure to develop young players and provide
established players with a voice in Federation decisions. Kuerten and
several of his former Davis Cup teammates - including Flavio Saretta, Andre
Sa - declared their discontent by declining to play in last weekend's 3-2
loss to Paraguay in Bahia, Brazil in protest over the Federation's policies.
Kuerten made it clear he will not play Davis Cup as long as Nelson Nastas
remains Federation president. Nastas announced he would step down from his
post on May 15th and that new elections to fill the Federation's
administration would be held the next day, but rumors persist that the
elections will not be held.

The current state of Brazilian tennis has convinced Kuerten his
boycott of Brazil's Davis Cup team was warranted. Kuerten made it clear he
will not participate in the July Davis Cup tie against Venezuela unless
Nastas honors his promise to resign his post.

"Each day more I am sure that I did the right thing when I decided not
to play," Kuerten said. "Lots of people said I should play when Nelson
announced he was leaving on May 15th and now they don't even know if these
elections are happening. Everything is very unclear. I am not a politician
and I don't know how these things work. What I do know is that I could be
thinking only about myself and my career, but I am an idealist guy and the
more active voice in tennis in Brazil and is my duty to do something for my
sport."

Stressing that the Federation must build a sound foundation for
Brazilian tennis by hosting more tournaments and establishing a central
national training facility, Kuerten claims the current administration has
failed to fully support Brazilian players at all levels.

"I have been talking to a lot to juniors, upcoming players, coaches
and even parents and everybody is unhappy. We need more tournaments here,
not like the Masters Cup that they wanted to have here some years ago, we
need futures, satellites, a place where everybody can practice," Kuerten
said. "That is what we want from the new administration. During this weekend
we could see the reality of our tennis. Everybody said that we lost because
we had inexperienced players, but players aged 24, 25, can't be
inexperienced. They must be ready to play Davis Cup, to play five set
matches. Every where else we see players aged 16, 17, having great results.
That's because they have the support of the federation, they practice with
good players all the time, they have something behind them. I hope that
things change here and that I can play Davis Cup again."

The 22nd-ranked Brazilian, who underwent surgery on his right hip in
February of 2002, said he still feels some pain in his hip, but
characterized it as "insignificant" compared to the pain he felt before the
surgery. Kuerten said Dr. Thomas Byrd, who performed the surgery in
Nashville, recently examined his hip again and was pleased with what he saw.

"He said that the bone structure is great and that he is very
satisfied with what he saw," Kuerten said. "Obviously, like every athlete,
who is giving 100 percent on court every day, I have a pain here, a pain
there, but it is nothing if compared with what I felt before the surgery. I
can say it is insignificant. I still feel a little weak in moving around and
in the resistance area, but I am working very hard on it and on my goals of
having a great clay court season."

Playing with greater confidence on his favorite surface this season,
Kuerten has reached the finals of two of the three clay-court events he's
played this season. He lost to Fernando Gonzalez in the Vina del Mar final
in February, but bounced back to beat Agustin Calleri, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, to
claim his 20th career championship in Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil. A former
finalist at both the Pacific Life Open and Nasdaq-100 Open, Kuerten did not
win a match at either Masters Series hard court event last month, and is
eager to regain his rhythm on clay.

The two-time Monte Carlo champion has committed to a complete
clay-court schedule, starting at next week's Tennis Masters Series-Monte
Carlo, followed by the Trofeo Conde de Godo in Barcelona, and consecutive
Tennis Masters Series tournaments in Rome and Hamburg in preparation for
Roland Garros. Eager and enthusiastic about the clay-court season, Kuerten
is convinced he must play with positive emotion and take more chances on
court if he is to reproduce the form he's shown on clay in the past.

"I am feeling really good and excited to play these tournaments. I
wanna play like I have always played, being aggressive all the time,"
Kuerten said. "These are my favorite tournaments of the year and I have had
great success in all of them. I know that after the surgery I faced a
different reality and that last year I rushed things a little bit. I am
facing these tournaments differently, knowing that in order to succeed I
will have to play the same way I have played in the past, aggressive, happy
and playing a risky game, even if I make some mistakes. I have good
expectations, I played a lot of tennis during the Latin American circuit and
as long as I return from this trip as happy as I am leaving, I will be
satisfied. And this would be achieved with lots of victories and by having
great moments too."

The champion who poured his heart out in Paris says Roland Garros will
always hold a special place in his heart.

"From all these tournaments obviously the French is my favorite and I
am having a good preparation," Kuerten said. "Arriving in Paris with a good
result would be great for my confidence. I will try to do the best I can,
inspire myself and try to have two happy weeks that will be forever
remembered, like I have had three times before."

Tennis Week thanks Diana Gabanyi, Kuerten's hard-working publicist and
surrogate older sister, for providing an English translation of his
comments.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]