Editing Gustavo Kuerten (section)

===2000: World No. 1===
After another solid clay court swing, Kuerten won his second French Open title by defeating [[Magnus Norman]] (who had beaten him a few weeks earlier in the final of the [[Rome Masters]]) on his 11th match point. Kuerten became the first South American to finish the year as World No. 1 in the history of the ATP rankings (since 1973).<ref name="collins">{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Bud|author-link=Bud Collins|title=The Bud Collins History of Tennis|year=2016|publisher=New Chapter Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-937559-38-0|page=637|edition=3rd}}</ref><ref name="espnhof" /> It was a close contest with young up-and-comer [[Marat Safin]] at the year's last event, the [[2000 Tennis Masters Cup – Singles|Tennis Masters Cup]] (in its first year under that name) in [[Lisbon]], Portugal, with one loss meaning that Safin would have been No. 1. Despite Safin having 4 chances to finish the year as world No. 1, Kuerten defied all odds and finished the year at No. 1 by beating [[Pete Sampras]] and [[Andre Agassi]] in back-to-back matches on an indoor hard court.<ref name="collins" /> He broke an eight-year hold of players from the U.S. on the year-end No. 1 position.<ref name="ithof">{{cite web|title=Gustavo Kuerten|url=https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/gustavo-kuerten/|website=www.tennisfame.com|publisher=[[International Tennis Hall of Fame]]}}</ref> He also became the first South American to finish in Top 5 in consecutive years since [[Guillermo Vilas]] of [[Argentina]] in 1977–78.<ref name="ithof" />