PARIS -- Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain will battle for a crown on Friday before one of them goes on to fight for a title.

	Defending champion Gustavo Kuerten already has won three titles on clay this year.

Such has been the pair's dominance on clay this season that the winner of their French Open semifinal will be recognized as the King of Clay and installed as the favorite for Sunday's final against Alex Corretja or Sebastien Grosjean.

Even before the doors swung open at Roland Garros nearly a fortnight ago, defending champion Kuerten and Ferrero appeared on a collision course.

"In the first round everyone was talking about a semifinal between Kuerten and Ferrero and they were right," fourth-seeded Ferrero said.

The two players arrived in Paris with three clay-court titles each this season, their prowess on the surface demonstrated further by their records. Kuerten has secured 29 victories in 32 matches on clay this year and Ferrero 27 of 29.

Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1996 French Open champion, compared the flamboyant Kuerten to Picasso after receiving a lesson in the art of tennis in their four-set quarterfinal.

But if the top seed can be compared to Picasso then Ferrero could well be the Rembrandt of Roland Garros, having dropped only one set in the tournament.

The two men have met only twice before, both matches resulting in epic five-set struggles.

Trailing two sets to one and 3-1 down in the fourth, Kuerten displayed fierce determination to back up his thundering groundstrokes as he overcame the Ferrero in the semifinals of last year's French Open on the way to his second title.

Ferrero, 21, avenged that defeat three weeks ago in the final of the Masters Series event in Rome, a contest described by many observers as a classic.

"You know it will be a tough match, probably the same as the final in Rome," Kuerten, 24, said. "A tough match with many baseline rallies and maybe a physically tiring match and maybe emotional because a semifinal can make you extra nervous.

"I think it's going to be a big battle. We are both playing excellently, and I will have to play close to perfection to win."

Ferrero, like most Spanish claycourters, is a man of few words who prefers to let his tennis do the talking.

And the message after nearly two weeks of consistently outstanding performances is coming through loud and clear -- he is more than capable of winning his first Grand Slam title in Paris.

"This year I came as the favorite with Kuerten and last year I was not the favorite; that's the difference," said Ferrero, who crushed sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals while losing only seven games.

"This is the biggest tournament in the world for me.

"I started playing good tennis in Barcelona and then Rome and Hamburg, but here, maybe, it's my best tennis."

Sneaking into the semifinals
While it's hardly a surprise to find a consummate claycourter like Corretja in the last four, the 13th-seeded Spaniard has reached the French Open semifinals for the second time almost unnoticed.

	Alex Corretja is making his second final appearance after losing to Carlos Moya in 1998.

His opponent, though, is more of a shock, 10th-seeded Grosjean having become the first Frenchman since Cedric Pioline in 1998 to make the semifinals at Roland Garros.

Coincidentally, it was Corretja who snuffed out French hopes that year before going on to lose the final to his compatriot Carlos Moya.

Grosjean, 23, and Corretja, 27, have never played each other, but Australian Open semifinalist Grosjean will be well aware of the damage Corretja has inflicted on his compatriots.

The affable Corretja goes into Friday's semifinal riding an eight-match winning streak against players from France, improving his overall record against Frenchmen to 35 victories and only six defeats.

"It's going to be a tough match because Alex is a clay-court specialist," said Grosjean, who reached the last four with an inspired performance to overcome third seed and former champion Andre Agassi.

"The semifinals are very important, just the fact that you're able to play in the semifinals in a Grand Slam tournament is of major importance," he added.

"And when you confirm this here in Paris, in the French Open, at home, it's extremely important."