PARIS -- In the day and age of spoiled, nasty, bitter, angry, no-account sports critters, the two tennis players who will play for the French Open championship are athletes of a different breed. Men from sunny climes with sunnier dispositions, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and Alex Corretja of Spain -- principled, romantic, stylish on and off the court and among the handful of the nicest guys in any game -- easily advanced to their championship rendezvous with straight-sets victories.

On another dark day in the City of Light, Corretja spent most of the gloomy afternoon grinding down the local hero, Sebastien Grosjean, refusing to try to out-hit the guy who had embarrassed Andre Agassi in the quarters. Winning 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4, Corretja instead merely stayed his own course, wailing topspin drives deep to the clay corners, yo-yoing Grosjean around and about Roland Garros and totally muting the flair that his opponent had used all week to rouse the crowds to uproarious echoes.

Corretja has made his mark in Grand Slams before, reaching the final here three years ago before losing to his countryman and compadre, Carlos Moya. That was four rounds after he set an all-time record by staying on court with Hernan Guny for five hours, 31 minutes -- he won 9-7 in the fifth set -- the longest recorded singles match in Slams history. U.S. Open trivialists could not have been surprised. In 1996 at Flushing Meadow, Corretja was that handsome guy who not merely almost ate Pete Sampras' lunch but forced Sampras to up-chuck his own. Even though Pistol Pete wished he could morph into Pepto Pete, vomiting for several miserable minutes at the back of the court, he held on to win their classic fourth round marathon, 7-6, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 when Corretja double-faulted on match point. "It was probably the best match of my career, then it was the worst," smiled the Barcelona battler.

Amiable Al may have been unknown then, but he has finished in the world's top ten twice since -- including 2000, when he won a key Davis Cup doubles point in his hometown, helping Spain upset Australia and win the Cup for the first time in the country's history. Having cut back his schedule this season -- entering the French he had played only 23 matches, less than everybody in the field except Sampras and Thomas Enquist -- Corretja retains a ranking of 13 in the world.

One of the friendliest players on tour, Corretja is a former president of the players' council and has won the ATP's annual sportsmanship award twice -- with Roland Garros just happening to serve as his center stage. At the '97 French, Corretja overruled a call against a journeyman named Filip Dewulf (no relation to the Minnesota basketball mascot), conceded a huge point and ended up losing the match. In '99 he won the prestigious Prix Orange in Paris, as chosen by journalists, for being the most pleasant, cooperative player.

On Sunday, Corretja will get no cooperation from Kuerten, who dominated him in Rome last month, 6-2, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open -- a tournament Kuerten went on to lose to Corretja's Davis Cup teammate, Juan Carlos Ferrero. But on Friday, Guga more closely resembled a Gargantua of the clay as he swamped Ferrero in a revenge-minded 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 Juan-whipping.

Kuerten is four years removed from his rookie French, when he shockingly won the championship and appeared in various psychedelic blue and yellow ensembles, not to mention shoes(!) -- Had Guga been bossanova-ing on crack? Brazil's colors are green and yellow! -- as well as some wild-curled ringlets that made him look like a sideman for Jerry Garcia. Last year he won the tournament again. And Sunday he should become the fourth man in history to make it a trifecta at Roland Garros, joining Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander and Rene Lacoste. Only two men have won more French Opens -- Bjorn Borg (6) and Henri Cochet (4).

Despite his astonishing comeback from two sets and match point down to the unknown American, Mike Russell, in the fourth round -- "I see him these days," Kuerten said of Russell in his delightful broken English. "I think wasn't bad for him ... [but] for me was maybe outstanding, you know, like I blessed." -- the once and probable future champion has been a dirt monster this spring. Kuerten is 25-3 on clay, easily the most impressive won-loss record of any Roland Garros top seed in the Open Era, so dominant on the russet-hued soft stuff that Yevgeny Kafelnikov (the Russian ranked No. 7 in the world) called him "Picasso."

Moreover, who among us could root against a guy who dedicates every big moment of his career to his father (who died, when Guga was 9 years old, while umpiring a junior match)? Who ships his trophies home to coastal Florianapolis and his mentally handicapped younger brother, Guilherme. Who's so humble he urged officials in Brazil not to build a statue of him; so happy he likes nothing better then to veg out on beaches from Rio to Costa Rica and so richly life-balanced, he once said: "In tennis, you can only lose. You know, the other guy can't eat you."

"Some of the top players won't talk to you," Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti said. "But he's the same Guga I knew ten years ago."

Only now Kuerten is the top-ranked player in the world. (He became the first South American in history to finish a year No. 1 when he beat Magnus Norman, Kafelnikov, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in succession at the Masters Cup last December in Lisbon.) Now he's about to win Roland Garros again. And his opponents are comparing him to legendary figures having nothing to do with tennis. Or maybe a lot to do with it.

"Today I tried to believe in what Kafelnikov said, that I'm the Picasso in the court," laughed Guga on Friday. "But now maybe I can get some Van Gogh influence to design my game even better."

The bronzed canvas awaits.

Curry Kirkpatrick, a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine, first covered the French Open in 1976. E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espnmag.com.