Kuerten Gets to Heart of the Matter

His exquisite artistry on the courts at Roland Garros has been something to behold with two French Open titles, but after fighting back from a two-sets-to-none deficit, and escaping match point against a qualifier, Gustavo Kuerten displayed another kind of flair Sunday.

He started drawing. Watching Kuerten used his racket as a brush through the red clay between the service line and the baseline, the crowd appeared perplexed.

What was he doing?

Of course, everyone who spends time in Paris is an artist. But it soon became obvious that the Brazilian was creating a heart on the court, a perfect gesture from a poetic soul. He knelt on the court, in the heart, and blew kisses to the crowd.

The spontaneous salute was a refreshing change from the seemingly premeditated celebrations in sports. Kuerten was thanking the Center Court crowd for its support, but it worked on several levels.

There was his immense heart in the 3-hour 25-minute, fourth-round match, especially in withstanding a 26-stroke point on match point against him in the third set. Then there was the heart of his opponent, 23-year-old qualifier Michael Russell, who outplayed the No. 1 in the world for 2 1/2 sets.

“I’m very emotional and everything I got in my life, nothing was for free,” said Kuerten, who won, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-1.

“I had to fight a lot for everything I got so far. So I like this. I like the battles. I like these challenges that I always get in front of me. Today was special. Maybe one of the greatest feelings in all my life in the tennis court was today.”

Russell joked about Kuerten’s artwork.

“I was going to go out there and do a little tic-tac-toe,” he said. “I don’t think they would have reacted too well. He deserves it. He’s won two championships here. He can do whatever he wants. He can strip down naked if he wants, run around the court, whatever he wants.”

They shared a warm moment at the net. Kuerten complimented the stocky, muscular Russell on his superb retrieving and running. Said Russell: “I just said, ‘Too good. You should have missed that ball on match point.’ ”

It came at 5-3 in the third set with Russell serving. He had fought off two break points in that game and finally got the advantage. They exchanged groundstrokes on match point and tension escalated throughout the stadium, with Kuerten finally stepping up and smacking a forehand for a clean winner, catching Russell going the other way.

The score became deuce, but it might as well have been advantage Kuerten as Russell deflated.

“Obviously, I look back on it now, you always say, ‘What if I would have served and volleyed?’ ” Russell said. “I played a pretty solid point. Obviously, I didn’t take it. I wasn’t aggressive enough with it. No. 1 player in the world is not going to give you the match. He stepped up, cracked a forehand, put me on the defensive. From there, he basically took control.”

One of Kuerten’s shots clipped the line during the long rally, and Russell said, joking: “It’s unfortunate we have umpires because I would have called it out.”

Russell’s journey to the final 16 never would have been possible had he not survived a match point in the first round of qualifying.

Match point, giveth. Match point, taketh.

He was attempting to become only the second qualifier in Open Era to put out a top-seeded player in a Grand Slam event. The only time it happened was when Russian qualifier Andrei Olhovskiy defeated Jim Courier in the third round at Wimbledon in 1992.

But Courier was not comfortable on grass in those days. Clay is Kuerten’s best surface and the defending French Open champion was not playing poorly against Russell. Russell was the one who lifted his level and Kuerten had to catch up with him.

“It was great,” Russell said. “We first started playing and the stadium was about half full. Maybe they thought Guga was going to blow me off the court or something. I look up after two sets, it’s packed. The Brazilian fans are screaming, going crazy. It was a great experience. I’d love to do it again.”

Maybe next time he won’t have to pretend to be another player to get an air-conditioned room. The hotel refused to let him move, so Russell pretended to be Harel Levy, who was leaving. Levy never checked out because if he had, the hotel was ready to give the room to someone else.

“He was arguing with the woman--it was the night before the [Xavier] Malisse match,” said Terry London, who is Russell’s coach. “I said, ‘Now’s the time to step up because you don’t want to lose the match because you were dehydrated from no air-conditioning.’ ”

Russell will move from No. 122 in the world to about 85, and, the digs should get better.

Kuerten and Russell overshadowed everything Sunday--with one exception. There is always one weird crowd story at a Grand Slam, and the French Open is no exception.

An egg was thrown on the court during a fourth-round match between No. 1-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland and No. 17 Sandrine Testud of France. The biggest surprise was that it was directed at Testud, not Hingis, who still is not very popular with French fans. Apparently, there was some French displeasure when Hingis took a 5-0 first-set lead.

“How big was the egg?” Testud asked. “It’s a good question. Hopefully, it didn’t fall on my head. It relaxed me a little bit. It was a bit of comic relief. I played better.

“That’s stupid, that’s the only thing I can say.”

Hingis, who won 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, said: “Well, it wasn’t thrown at me, so I felt good about that.”

Andy Roddick, who strained his left hamstring and had to retire in the third set against Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, had an MRI Saturday. He was asked by an ITF official to release the results but refused. Though the 18-year-old Roddick insists he intends to play Wimbledon, his representatives did not disclose the results, despite several media requests.