Lisbon crowd an inspiration as Kuerten plays the pain

The popular Brazilian is a big hit in Lisbon, with even the European country's president Jorge Sampaio spending time watching the two-time French Open winner play a round-robin match this week.

Kuerten levelled his group record at the eight-man event at a win and a loss with Thursday night's victory over Swede Magnus Norman, a re-run of this year's Roland Garros final won by the 24-year-old Brazilian. As in all of his matches here, the public was 100 per cent behind their "cousin" from South America.

"I try to motivate myself with that," Kyuerten said of the crowd support. "I was near my fans, trying to reunite all the fans around the court. "This is very important for me. I try to get all the positive things out of this, I'm really excited with all the crowd."

Kuerten's tasks are concentrated mainly on physical therapy as he deals with the leg problem he picked up in his first group match. "I have to be at physical therapy 12 hours every day," he said during the build-up for a final round-robin contest against Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the Green group.

"I do nothing, just relax and do as little as possible and treat myself in the best possible way. I'm doing physiotherapy practically all day long, trying to get ready for the match and trying to think positive." Kuerten said he always feels some pain while on court.

"I have a small protection on my back and I'm putting on a bit of cream and having some massages. This is part of the treatment I'm doing. With the help of the physical trainers here, I will be able to get better and compete with the other players here."

While he still harbours chances of reaching the semifinal stage in his second appearance at the year-end tournament, Kuerten - here with coach Larri Passos, mother Alice, grandmother Olga and brother Rafael - has already all but conceded this year's world number 1 ranking to mighty Marat Safin.

"Safin deserves to be number 1," said Kuerten, who held the lead in the season-long Champions race for 16 weeks and was duelling up until the end with his Russian rival for the top honour. "He's been playing unbelievable. He wins two tournaments in a row, won the U.S. Open. He's the guy who really deserve to be number 1."

With one long season nearly over, another will be beginning after a short Christmas break at home in Florianapolis for the southern Brazilian. Kuerten already has his do-nothing holiday mapped out. "I'm hoping to enjoy a lot of surfing, be with my family and not travel," he said. "I don't want to go anyplace. I just want to stay quiet and calm, try to forget the racket and the practising."

(la/dpa)