Roland Garros 1997

It was the third and last by far, miracle in Paris – the tournament was captured by a player who theoretically hadn’t any basis to win the event before it started. In some respects Gustavo Kuerten‘s triumph was more astonishing than Chang and Wilander victories. Admittedly Kuerten was three years older, but in contrary to them, he wasn’t a Top 20 player, enough to say he hadn’t even won three straight matches at the main level prior to Roland Garros ’97 whereas Chang and Wilander before their triumphs had played Grand Prix finals, Chang even got a title. Read more…
Below comparison of three “Parisian miracles” at the time they occurred, in order: year of the triumph, age of players (years-months-days), number of tournaments played (appearances in Paris before triumph), number of titles, position in the ATP ranking:

Mats Wilander      1982,   17-9-15,    22 (0)     –     [18]
Michael Chang     1989,   17-3-20,   23 (1)      1     [19]
Gustavo Kuerten 1997,   20-8-29,   20 (1)      –     [66]