NEW YORK -- After losing to Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten in the quarterfinals of this year's French Open, Yevgeny Kafelnikov called him a tennis "Picasso" -- and the Russian wasn't referring to Kuerten's clean line in carving up the red clay at Roland Garros in the shape of a heart. No, he was talking about the artistry of Kuerten's classic, flowing backhand and the impossibly severe vectors it dictates on the court.

	To shake the clay off his image, Gustavo Kuerten needs to win a major on another surface.

Beauty, however, is in the eye of the beholder.

Kuerten, 24, is the No. 1-ranked player in the world -- the top-seeded man in this U.S. Open -- but in some quarters he still receives little respect. He won his third Grand Slam singles title earlier this season, a third French Open in five years, on a slow surface that rewards intuition and ingenuity -- artistry, if you will.

Still, the fact remains: 13 of his 16 career titles have come on clay. The dreaded label of clay-court specialist will haunt Kuerten until he wins a big one on the hard courts of Melbourne, Australia or Flushing, N.Y., or the emerald carpet of the All-England Club -- swift surfaces that place a premium on strength and power.

"I think each year I'm getting close," Kuerten said Wednesday after surviving his first-round match with Daniel Vacek, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. "As far as you go in a Slam, it's only one target. At the same time, people say you're not as good as the guys that win all the time. You have this challenge for yourself to see if you can get there.

"For me it would be the next stage for my career, maybe win a Slam on another surface."

It could happen as soon as next Sunday. For anchoring that gangly 6-foot-3, 165-pound body is one stiff spine.

Last year, Kuerten trailed Russian Marat Safin by 75 points in the ATP Champions Race going into the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon, Portugal. Needing to win his last four matches in four days, Kuerten defeated Magnus Norman and Kafelnikov, then took out Pete Sampras after losing a first-set tiebreaker. Kuerten throttled Andre Agassi in the final 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Kuerten finished the season as the No. 1 player -- a first for a South American -- on a hard court, no less.

Spaniard Alex Corretja sounded irked when he was asked earlier this year if Kuerten still had something to prove.

	“	I would love to be in his situation. On clay, he shows he is the best. What's the meaning? He has to show he has to win Australian Open and U.S. Open? He doesn't have to show anything. ”
		— Alex Corretja

"I would love to be in his situation," Corretja said. "On clay, he shows he is the best. What's the meaning? He has to show he has to win Australian Open and U.S. Open? He doesn't have to show anything."

Kuerten, Guga to his Brazilian fans, lost his second-round match at the Australian Open this year, matching his best effort in five tries. Wimbledon? Don't ask. He pulled out with what he called a sore groin, but previously he had criticized the seeding process there, claiming it was unfair to those players who favored clay. Ultimately, Kuerten took five weeks off after the French Open.

"I think for me [it] was important," Kuerten said. "Right now I wouldn't really see myself in the condition I am to play all these matches I play at the Open. If I didn't have that break, was really tough for me. I think [it] was the right decision still."

Heading into the summer hard court season in the United States, Kuerten had won five tournaments, all on clay. But in Los Angeles he made it all the way to the semifinals, losing there to eventual champion Agassi. A week later he reached the Round of 16, losing to Andy Roddick.

	Gustavo Kuerten sank to his knees after winning his third consecutive French Open title.

In back-to-back weeks in August, Kuerten's growing confidence on hard courts could be seen in his results. He won in Cincinnati, knocking off Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, followed by top 10 fixtures Kafelnikov, Tim Henman and Patrick Rafter. In Indianapolis, he achieved another final, opposite Rafter, but withdrew trailing 4-2 in the first set with a strained rib muscle.

Nevertheless, Kuerten has won 27 of his past 30 matches and is one of only two players on the men's side to reach at least two finals during the summer.

"Right now, I play, I can win [on hard courts]," Kuerten said. "I'm not afraid. I [do] not doubt what my game can reach. So that's kind of [a] big change for myself."

On Wednesday he ran his season's record to 56-9, but he looked a little out of sync against the world's No. 761-ranked player. Vacek, who has now lost all three of his singles matches this year, took the third set and extended Kuerten to 7-5 in the fourth. It was the kind of lapse that could cost Kuerten later, when the sets -- and the aches and pains -- begin to pile up. Kuerten was on the court for two hours and 20 minutes, modestly recalling last year's monumental meltdown here.

Kuerten, then the tournament's No. 2 seed, lost in the first round to Wayne Arthurs. Kuerten admitted he was "scared" and "a little bit worried" before he faced Vacek, who has struggled with back problems.

Kuerten's tenuous hold on this tournament is also illustrated by the turnover at the top of the men's game. Eight different players have appeared in the past four Grand Slam singles finals. Further, Kuerten is insecure in the knowledge that only eight top seeds have won this tournament in the 33 years of the Open era.

"It's like a challenge for me," Kuerten said. "I never pass to the quarters here. I know I'm playing good enough right now to maybe do this year.

"It's a doubt as far as you never did it. I think until I don't get there, semis or final, is going to be like this. I always looking for next year, next year. Maybe this is the year."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.