Kuerten brought down again at Swiss indoors

Gustavo Kuerten's late-season collapse continued on Wednesday as the world number one went out of the Swiss indoor tournament opening round with a 7-6 6-2 loss to Frenchman Julien Boutter.

Without a win since the fourth round of the U.S. Open, it was the third time in as many tournaments that the top-seeded Brazilian had lost his opening match.

With Lleyton Hewitt just 34 points behind and eyeing the number one ranking, Kuerten arrived in Basle looking to put some distance between himself and the Australian, who pulled out injured from this week's Stockholm Open.

The 62nd-ranked Boutter, who plays his best tennis indoors as he showed by reaching the Milan final earlier this year, was always going to be a potentially tricky first-round opponent.

The Frenchman played an attacking serve and volley game and Kuerten worked mainly from the baseline, so there was little, beside their rankings, to distinguish the two players in the opening set.

The big-serving Boutter, still searching for his first career title, finally gained the upper hand in the tiebreak, surging in front 3-0 and then holding on to win 7-3. Kuerten smashed his racket on to the court in frustration.

The French Open champion appeared to steady himself when he broke Boutter early in the second set to go up 2-1.

However, Boutter immediately broke back, then again at 4-2, and again to close out the match for the biggest win of his career.

"Last week he (Kuerten) lost against the tournament winner and the week before that against the runner-up so he is playing good tennis," said Boutter, who beat Britain's Greg Rusedski in the opening round in Stuttgart last week to record his first victory in four events.

Very Angry

"It's a tough challenge for me to recover after losing in the first round every week," said Kuerten. "It's frustrating, I had my chances but I let them go. That makes me very angry.

"He served strongly and was very aggressive, particularly in the second set."

Eighth seed Jan-Michael Gambill was also an opening round casualty, the American forced to retire with a shoulder injury after dropping the first set 6-4 to Swiss George Bastl.

Trailing 5-4, Gambill called for the trainer and an injury timeout to have his right shoulder massaged. He returned to the court but after losing the next game he abandoned the match when the pain persisted.

Fourth seed Roger Federer, who lives near Basle, delighted a sell-out crowd at the St Jacobshalle as he eased past Spain's Albert Costa 6-3 6-3.

Federer wasted no time stamping his authority on the contest, breaking Costa at the first opportunity in each set to take control.

"Playing at home is always special, I used to be a ball boy here for three years," said Federer. "People here like to see me on the court and I enjoy every minute of it."

Sixth seed Andy Roddick, with just one win since losing to Hewitt in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open, also continued to struggle to find his indoor form, the American teenager needing a third-set tiebreak to slip past French qualifier Stephane Huet 6-2 3-6 7-6.

After cruising through the opening set, Roddick struggled with the 254th-ranked Frenchman, finally securing his place in the second round by taking the tiebreak 7-5.

"He just came out and played well," said Roddick, the winner of three titles already in his debut season. "I was OK in the first set but I lost concentration in the second.