When Guga won Roland Garros, I was in the kitchen listening on the radio

It was June 8, 1997. I was making Sunday lunch when my husband shouted from the living room: “Lúcia, come see this!” He never shouted to call anyone.

I came running. On the television, a blond boy from Santa Catarina was lifting a golden trophy in Paris. Gustavo Kuerten. He was 20 years old. He was ranked number 66 in the world. He had just won Roland Garros.

I didn’t understand much about tennis back then. I knew it existed, that there was an Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, and that it was an expensive country-club sport. But Guga changed that. After that Sunday, a lot changed.

What Guga did that goes beyond the scoreboard

Guga won Roland Garros three times. Anyone can look that up. What the numbers don’t show is what he did to people who had never watched a tennis match in their lives.

My youngest daughter started asking for a racket after 1997. My nephew, who was the star soccer player in the neighborhood, asked his father to take him out on a court. My husband, who had never paid attention to tennis, started following every tournament.

That’s what a champion does. It’s not the ranking. It’s what he plants in the people who were watching.

Fonseca and Guto at this Roland Garros

Last week, when I read that Guto Miguel had won the Roland Garros juniors — 17 years old, Brazilian, clay, Paris — that 1997 feeling came back. Not the same. It’s different, because I’m different, because the world is different. But I recognized the taste of it.

And Fonseca in the quarterfinals. Eighteen years old. On the same court where Guga made history.

I don’t know if Fonseca will be the next Guga. Nobody knows. Comparisons like that are unfair to both of them — to Guga, who was one of a kind, and to Fonseca, who is building his own story.

But I know what I feel when I watch that boy from Rio play with the look of someone exactly where he belongs.

It feels like 1997. Except this time I saw it on television, not on the radio.