Kuerten disappoints but vows to fight back

Gustavo Kuerten's Brazilian samba bash was brought to an abrupt end at the U.S. Open championships on Thursday but the world number one said his party was far from over.

"This was maybe the first match I didn't play well for three or four months," said Kuerten, who lost his quarter-final match 6-4 6-0 6-3 to seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

"If you're comfortable with losing, it's not fine," Kuerten said. "I feel disappointed and I feel frustrated but also maybe tonight I can have a good dinner, drink one beer, go out. If I win, I wouldn't have this chance."

After winning his third French Open title in May, Kuerten took an extended break and skipped the grass court season, including Wimbledon.

Determined to prove himself on another surface, Kuerten came out firing in the summer hardcourt season and won 19 of 23 matches.

He reached the semifinals in Los Angeles, the third round at Montreal, won the title in Cincinnati and reached the final in Indianapolis before being forced to retire with a rib strain.

After his sizzling summer, it was clear Kuerten would enter the Open as the top seed.

The uncertainty was whether he could back that up with his first semifinal showing on the Open's hard courts.

He fought his way into the quarter-finals, winning an impressive five-setter against Max Mirnyi in the third round but his semifinal dream will have to be postponed.

Despite the usual constant cheering from his flag-waving, chanting Brazilian fans, Kuerten came out flat and uninspired against Kafelnikov and lost in a little more than 90 minutes.

"I didn't have any energy to step up and play my best," Kuerten said. "My first set went away and then I didn't find myself comfortable running and playing one or two points well back to back. He took it over and just like that, I didn't really feel myself into the game."

Although he was treated by ATP trainer Doug Spreen for a left groin strain, even popping a few painkillers, Kuerten said it was hard to pinpoint one reason for his lacklustre play.

"Everything was twice as difficult for myself today, to run, to serve, to play my shots," he said. "It was maybe a little bit of everything. I was a little bit tired and him playing well and a little bit of pain here and there."

After the match, Kuerten was able to chat with Brazilian soccer legend Pele, who has an apartment in New York and a house in the toney Hamptons beach area nearby.

For Kuerten, a rabid soccer fan and longtime fan of Pele's, it made his day.

"It was one good thing for me to remember today, not the match," Kuerten said.

Despite the loss, Kuerten will leave the Open with his happy-go-lucky attitude, his top ranking and six titles in hand for 2001, most on the tour.

For now, he is not going to waste time worrying about winning a Grand Slam title on another surface.

"If it comes, it comes for me," he said. "If not, I'll be trying. It's not that I don't care, but I'm not giving all my life for this. I prefer to be happy, let's say, with my family, myself.

"If I have to change this to win a Slam, I don't need to win. I want to keep the same like this. If I win and I stay happy as I am, it will be great.

"If I don't and I stay the same way, it will be wonderful. I have three Slams. I never really expected to get all that far so it's wonderful for me."