Albert Costa i Casals (; born 25 June 1975) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He is best remembered for winning the Men's Singles title at the French Open in 2002. Tennis career Costa began playing tennis at the age of five. He first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player. In 1993, he reached the French Open junior final and won the Orange Bowl. He turned professional later that year and quickly established a reputation as a strong clay court player. Spanish former player and commentator for Spanish television Andrés Gimeno used to call him "the man with two forehands", because he could hit with the same accuracy and strength both forehand and backhand. In 1994, he won two challenger series events and was named the ATP's Newcomer of the Year. Costa won his first top-level singles title in 1995 at Kitzbühel, beating the "King of Clay", Thomas Muster, in a five set final. It was Muster's first of only 2 losses on clay in 1995. Costa ended Muster's streak of 40 consecutive clay match wins and his 11 consecutive final wins . Costa won three further titles in 1996. In 1997, he won another two singles titles and was part of the Spanish team that won the World Team Cup. He won another two singles titles in 1998, including the Tennis Masters Series event in Hamburg and played at magnificent level at the French Open, only a brilliant Marcelo Rios could stop him at fourth round, but he established the bases for his future winning in 2002. Three further titles followed in 1999. In 2000, Costa helped Spain win its first Davis Cup. Despite being knocked out in the first round in men's singles, he also captured a bronze medal in the men's doubles at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, partnering Álex Corretja. Going into the French Open in 2002, Costa had not won a tour title of any kind since 1999 and was not considered to be among the favorites. Seeded 20th, he defeated Richard Gasquet, Nikolay Davydenko and Andrea Gaudenzi to reach the fourth round, where he defeated two time defending-champion and former world No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten in straight sets. Costa followed up with a five-set victory over Argentina's Guillermo Cañas in the quarterfinals. He then defeated fellow-Spaniard, former world No. 2 and long-time friend Àlex Corretja in a