NEW YORK -- With each flowing forehand, each biting serve, Gustavo Kuerten looked less and less like the unseeded player he is and more and more like the Grand Slam champion he has been.

	Andy Roddick played to the crowd while posting a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Raemon Sluiter.

Marat Safin did little to slow the transformation.

In a matchup that, judging by names and accomplishments alone, belongs in the latter stages of a major tournament rather than merely the second round, Kuerten dominated No. 2-seeded Safin 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 Friday at the U.S. Open.

"Maybe today is my happiest day of the year,'' three-time French Open champion Kuerten said, his disposition as bright as his orange T-shirt. "I feel much more relieved. I feel I have nothing to lose. Winning the match, I got my confidence back. I feel happy with myself and my game.''

That hasn't been the case for much of 2002, a season interrupted in February by right hip surgery that kept him off tour for two months. Kuerten came into the U.S. Open toting a 13-10 match record and a ranking of 46th -- making him the first player in 31 years to go from being seeded No. 1 at the Open one year to being unseeded the next.

"He's hungry,'' Safin said. "He wants to come back. He wants to win matches.''

So does the man Safin upset in the 2000 Open final, Pete Sampras. The 13-time major champion is without a title of any sort since July 2000, but played about as well as he has all season in a 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Kristian Pless. Sampras had 21 aces, including one at 135 mph to end the match.

"It's been a struggle this year, but hopefully I can get it going here,'' said Sampras, 18-0 in night matches at the Open, which he's won four times. "I feel really comfortable playing here.''

Also into the third round were No. 11 Andy Roddick, who turned 20 Friday and was serenaded with "Happy Birthday'' by fans en route to his tour-leading 50th match victory this year; and No. 3 Tommy Haas, who was steamed that his coach wasn't relaying advice from the stands -- even though such help is banned. Roddick next plays No. 18 Alex Corretja, while Haas faces No. 29 Thomas Enqvist.

Winners included Wimbledon semifinalists Tim Henman and Xavier Malisse, and French Open finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero. But 10th-seeded Sebastien Grosjean lost to fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Kuerten, who plays 65th-ranked Nicolas Massu next, was asked what the unwanted time off after his operation taught him.

"The past and the future don't matter -- just the moment you're living,'' the man known as Guga said. "So that's what I've got to worry: When the ball comes, I have to hit it, or when I'm on the court I have to practice.

"When it's gone, it's gone.''

If Kuerten lives for the moment, Safin tries to get through it.

He'll smash rackets (though none Friday, which counts as progress). He'll throw his arms in the air. He'll mutter to himself after almost every mistake. It's as though he's thinking, "I am much too good to ever give away a point.''

"What can you say to yourself? It's just all the good things and all the bad things you can say,'' Safin said. "You try to react, try to maybe help. But it didn't help today.''

Kuerten was just too good, striking 13 aces; his fastest of the match, 122 mph, came in the final game. He faced just two break points, erasing both, and won 24 of the 27 points on his serve in the third set.

Kuerten's ratio of winners to errors was 45-24.

"He was inspired. He was everything. Even when he hit with the frame, it was perfect,'' Safin said. "What can you do about it? You cannot do nothing about it.''

Safin had other obstacles to overcome, including a cracked rib and fatigue from a 4½-hour, cramp-inducing first-round victory over Nicolas Kiefer.

Still, the 6-foot-4 Russian can't be pleased with a second-round exit to match the one he had at Wimbledon. The two surprising flops at majors follow a string in which Safin made at least the semifinals of four straight Grand Slam events.

Kuerten, meanwhile, knows all about surprises, having won the 1997 French Open as a little-known player ranked out of the top 50 and without a single tournament title to his credit.

"Marat, for sure, knew it would be a tough match to play me, especially in a Grand Slam,'' said Guga, who took in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night. "So I think I will always be trying to worry the guys in these tournaments, even if I'm not seeded.''