by Jack Cunniff    http://twitter.com/jrcunniff
1996 April – Kuerten plays his first ATP level event in Prague, defeats Andrei Chesnokov before losing to Javier Sanchez in the second round.
1996 May – Kuerten makes his Grand Slam debut, losing to No. 11 Wayne Ferreira in the first round of the French Open.
1997 March – Kuerten defeats No. 10 Ferreira in the second round of Indian Wells for his first career win over a player ranked in the top ten.
1997 June – Ranked No. 66, Kuerten becomes the surprise winner of the French Open defeating Sergi Bruguera in the final. He also defeats former French Open champions Thomas Muster (1995) and Yevgeny Kafelnikov (1996) en route to the title. He is the first Brazilian male to win a Grand Slam event, and improves his ranking to No. 15.
1997 August – Kuerten reaches the finals of Canada, losing to Chris Woodruff in the final, and reaches No. 10, breaking into the Top Ten for the first time in his career.
1998 May – Kuerten attempts to defend his French Open title, but loses in the second round to Marat Safin, 6-4 in the fifth set.
1999 April-May – Kuerten sweeps the titles at both Monte Carlo and Rome.
2000 June – Seeded 5th, Kuerten wins his second French Open title over Magnus Norman 4 sets. He has won 17 of his last 18 matches by winning Paris, Hamburg, and a runner-up in Rome.
2000 November – Kuerten clinches the No. 1 ranking for the year over Marat Safin and Pete Sampras by winning the Tennis Masters Cup. Kuerten becomes the first player to defeat Sampras and Andre Agassi in the semifinals and finals of an event.
2001 June – Kuerten wins his 3rd and final French Open, defeating Alex Corretja in 4 sets. In the fourth round, Kuerten survives a match point against Michael Russell, and following the match draws a heart in the clay to show his appreciation to the crowd.
2001 August – Kuerten defeats 5 consecutive Top 20 opponents en route to the Cincinnati title: No 16 Haas, No. 19 Ivanisevic, No. 6 Kafelnikov, No. 8 Henman, and No. 7 Rafter in the finals.
2001 November – Kuerten drops out of the No. 1 for the final time. In total, he has spent 43 weeks ranked No. 1.
2002 February – Kuerten undergoes his first hip surgery.
2003 March – Kuerten re-enters the top twenty rankings by defeating Goran Ivanisevic, Roger Federer, James Blake, and Rainer Schuettler to reach the finals MS Indian Wells; he loses the final to Lleyton Hewitt.
2004 February – Kuerten wins his 20th and final main tour event, defeating Augustin Calleri in the finals of Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil.
2004 May – Kuerten defeats No. 1 ranked Roger Federer in the third round of the French Open. (This is the last Grand Slam match in which Federer has lost earlier than the QF, through Wimbledon 2012.) Kuerten reaches the quarterfinals, his last appearance in that stage of a professional event.
2004 September – Kuerten undergoes his 2nd hip surgery.
2007 February – Ranked No. 804, Kuerten wins his final match on the ATP Tour, defeating Wesley Moodie in Las Vegas.
2008 May – Kuerten accepts a Wild Card into the French Open, and plays his final professional match, losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round.
2012 July – Kuerten is inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
