Brazil’s Kuerten outlasted hard-serving Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-7 (5/7), 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 here yesterday, firing 33 aces with one double fault and hitting an amazing 104 winners with only 13 unforced errors.

“Things were difficult for me. I had to pull out everything I had,” said Kuerten. “I just gave everything I learned all these years in the match to win. At the end it was a great payback to have this tremendous feeling,”

Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic, fifth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles and Wimbledon runner-up Justine Henin were eliminated on the first day of major surprises.

Kuerten, who won his third French Open title in June, struggled to break Mirnyi, missing on his first 10 break-point opportunities, the last seven of those coming in the third set.

“We both played a great match,” Kuerten said. “One had to win. I was lucky it was me. I feel very happy. I’m enjoying it a lot.”

Kuerten’s second and final service break came on match point with a backhand Mirnyi could only volley into the net to end the duel after three hours and 31 minutes.

“There’s a reason he’s No. 1,” Mirnyi said. “He has won many matches of this type. He’s on top of his game. If he wasn’t doing this, he wouldnt be No. 1. I wasn’t surprised for him to keep fighting.”

Mirnyi had 22 winners to five double faults and 72 winners against 25 unforced errors, but broke Kuerten only once, that on a backhand volley winner after 81 minutes in the 11th game of the second set.

“‘Guga’ served well and I didn’t have many opportunities to break him,” Mirnyi said. “The first four sets were even. He got on my serve a little bit and won the fifth.”

Kuerten will face Spain's 40th-ranked Albert Costa for a berth in the quarterfinals. Costa ousted Ivanisevic, the Croatian 15th seed, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2). Ivanisevic fired 24 aces but made 50 unforced errors.

“A lot of easy mistakes I made,” ivanisevic said. “I tried my best. I just missed some easy shots. I did my best. I can’t be unhappy. But nobody likes to lose.”

Costa, who improved to 4-1 against Ivanisevic, lost in the first round here five times until reaching the second round last year.

“I played a great match,” Costa said. “I played with so much confidence. It was a tough tournament for me so many years. I lost five times in the first round and was so disappointed. But now I’m very happy.”

Spain’s Ferrero fell 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7) to 39th-rated compatriot Tommy “Mosquito” Robredo.

“I was more tired than him and I made some mistakes in the tie-breaker and that was the key to the match,” Ferrero said.

The rest of the US Open’s Spanish Armada, a record six men in the third round, sank as Australian fourth seed Lleyton Hewitt beat Albert Portas 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 and French 12th seed Arnaud Clement dumped 17th seed Carlos Moya 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.

And American 18th seed Andy Roddick ousted 11th seed Alex Corretja 6-4 6-2 6-2. Roddick, at 19 the youngest man remaining, fired 16 aces and connected on 62 per cent of his powerful first serves. He gets Robredo next.

“I have a chance in every match now,” Roddick said. “I can hit with power. But it makes me feel good to know I grinded out a match.”

Sixth seed Henin Blew an early lead and lost to 10th seed Serena Williams 5-7, 0-6 while seventh seed Seles made her earliest US Open exit since 1990, losing to 37th-ranked Deja Bedanova 5-7,6-4, 3-6.

Seles committed eight double faults and 51 unforced errors, the last coming when she netted a backhand to end it.

“It was just one of those matches,” Seles said. “Didn’t feel comfortable out there from the first ball. I made too many errors to stay competitive.”

“You can’t really describe it, to win such a big match in such a big tournament,” Bedanova said. “When you go off the court, it feels amazing.”

Her next foe is world No 1 Martina Hingis, who last won a slam at the 1999 Australian Open. Hingis took 12 of the final 13 games to defeat 14th seed Jelena Dokic 6-4, 6-0.

“She started playing very hard and very fast,” Hingis said. “I had to get everything back I could and run. I scrambled back. Her game fell apart when she slowed down and I was able to do some things.” Hingis trailed 0-3 but broke in the fifth game to begin the rout.

“I started to miss a little bit more. I was going for too much,” Dokic said. “I didn’t expect her to play as well as she did. Mentally I went down, lost my serve. Everything went down the hill after that.”

Third seed Lindsay Davenport, last year’s US Open runner-up, beat Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, to book a quarterfinal rematch with Williams, whom she beat last year on the way to the final.

“I’m going to be ready this year,” said Williams, 6-2 lifetime against Davenport. “We know each other’s game very well.”

Williams kept alive the chances for a final against sister Venus, the defending champion, by dumping the 18-year-old Belgian Wimbledon runner-up.

“I hurt myself in the beginning by making too many errors,” Williams said. “She played a good match. She did her best. I just did a bit better.”

Henin, who had no aces but seven double faults and only six winners, buried her head in her hands after squandering a 3-1 lead to lose set one.

“When I lost the first set, mentally it was very hard to come back,” she said.

Meanwhile, Venus and Serena Williams, who teamed up to win the 1999 US Open doubles crown, were ousted 2-6, 6-4, 5-7 by American Chanda Rubin and Els Callens of Belgium in the third round.

Playing before a boisterous crowd packed into the grandstand court yesterday, Callens and Rubin, in only their second tournament as a doubles team, claimed victory in one hour and 54 minutes.

“It was a great atmosphere, a great crowd,’’ said Rubin. “It was just fun. It was a fun match to play, and especially to win.’’

Saurav and coach John Wright, sharing their views about the tour, in an informal chat with newspersons, attributed the team’s poor performance partly to injuries.

“We played well only in patches, at least we won a Test but international cricket is tough. This tour was no exception,’’ Saurav said, adding with a sense of forboding: “The tour to South Africa is going to be even more tougher.”

“We made it to the final in the tri-series after some poor performances in the beginning. It was bad not to have been able to win,” Wright lamented.

Saurav admitted that the bowling lacked variety. “But what can be done if three of your bowlers are injured. Injuries are part of the game, you can’t help it,’’ he explained.

Asked if a left-arm-spinner was missed sorely to lend some variety, Saurav did not agree, saying: “We had a leg spinner instead (Sairaj Bahutule).”

Saurav said the few injuries proved to be a handicap but that cannot be said to be the only reason for failure. Given the bad start we had on the tour, the boys came well back but, “We didn’t bat well. We didn’t put enough runs on the board,’’ he added.

Saurav’s view was endorsed by Wright, who said: “You need to have at least 350 runs on the board when you bat first.’’

Asked what kind of a team he expected if he was picked as the captain again for the tour to South Africa, Saurav said the wickets in South Africa are conducive to pace bowling. “We have to take this into account when the team is picked on September 7,” he averred.

Saurav answered in the affirmative when asked whether the selectors had been giving him the team he wanted so far.

Asked if Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralidharan made the difference, Wright accepted the fact and also attributed the Lankans performance to good support provided to Muthiah Muralidharan from the other end. They had two to three other bowlers to support him, he pointed out.

Asked about Harbhajan Singh, Wright said: “Harbhajan could not cope with the Kookaburra balls being used in Sri Lanka. He is young and is learning how to bowl on different wickets.’’

Wright also attributed the Lankans superior performance to a five-year fitness programme they had been undergoing.

He reiterated that having watched 40 to 45 players during his tenure so far as the coach, he felt that youngsters have to be given a chance.

With the ‘big five’ — Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra — expected to recover from their respective injuries in time for the tour, they are almost certain to return to the team.

That would mean some of the youngsters, who were criticised by captain Saurav Ganguly for failing to perform to their potential, would find themselves left out.

Ganguly himself could find it difficult to retain his captaincy, if one goes by the cricket board grapevine. His current patchy form and the loss of one-day series as well as the Test series on the tour of Sri Lanka have contributed their share to the questions about the leadership qualities of Ganguly, whose place in the side is still not in doubt.

If the axe does fall on Ganguly, when the selectors meet here on September 6 to choose the captain, the man tipped to succeed him is his deputy, Rahul Dravid. The stylish Karnataka batsman has been very consistent for some time now and headed the Indian batting honours in Test series against Sri Lanka with an aggregate of 235 runs for a respectable average of 47.

The selectors will meet the following day, too, to pick the squad for the South Africa tour from October 1 to November 28, cricket board executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar said here today.

The Indians will be playing a triangular series with Kenya as the third team apart from three Test matches at Bloemfontein (November 3-7), Port Elizabeth (November 16-20) and at Centurion Park (November 24-28) and a three-day and a four-day side games against President’s XI (at Kimberley October 29-31) and South Africa “A” (at East London November 10-13).

In the USA, a home loss in a World Cup qualifier was barely noticed, tucked behind the first full day of college football, the pennant races and the US Open tennis tournament.

“This is not an easy ride,” US coach Bruce Arena said following Saturday’s 2-3 defeat to Honduras. “I didn’t expect it to be smooth. As you enter this competition, one has to believe that it goes nine or 10 games before teams qualify, and that’s certainly going to be the case.”

Following a 4-1-0 start, the USA have lost consecutive qualifiers for the first time since 1980. And next up is Wednesday night’s game at Costa Rica, where the Americans are 0-1-4 in World Cup qualifying.

The USA, second in the six-nation finals of the North and Central American and Caribbean region behind Costa Rica (5-1-1), remains confident they can finish in the top three and qualify for their fourth straight World Cup.

Even if the Americans lose again in Costa Rica, they’re sure they can pick up the necessary points against Jamaica on October 7 and at Trinidad and Tobago on November 11.

But changes will have to be made.

Coming in, defence had been the US backbone, allowing just two goals in six qualifiers. Against Honduras, they allowed three goals in a home qualifier for the first time in 41 years.

Arena was unusually blunt in his criticism of defender David Regis, who was repeatedly beaten. A quick fix would be to shift Jeff Agoos from central defender to outside, and to start Carlos Llamosa in the middle on a backline with Eddie Pope and Steve Cherundolo.

The offence?

Earnie Stewart was the offence. He scored twice, giving him five of the Americans’ nine goals in the regional finals, but he failed to score on his penalty kick, changing the momentum of the game.

Arena praised 19-year-old Landon Donovan, Jovan Kirovski and Cobi Jones for their play up front, but Kirovski rarely seemed involved in the offence. Donovan, playing wide left, showed bursts of speed and made some nice moves, but never got the ball in position to score.

Because of injuries to Brian McBride, Clint Mathis and Josh Wolff, Arena has few options. He could start Joe-Max Moore, who replaced Kirovski in the 64th minute, or he could recall Ante Razov, who has played two games with major league soccer’s Chicago Fire since coming back from a groin injury that caused him to be dropped from the US roster.

“Every time you learn more from a defeat than a win,” goalkeeper Brad Friedel said. “There are an awful lot of things we can learn from today.”

Friedel, starting a qualifier for the first time since March, had to face four breakaways. If the US defence keeps playing like that, the World Cup trip would be in jeopardy.

England need only the narrowest of wins in Newcastle to go top of European group nine on goal difference and establish themselves as clear favourites to qualify automatically for next year’s finals.

But after the enormous achievement of inflicting Germany’s worst home defeat since 1931, Eriksson knows the danger of thinking that England can beat footballing minnows such as Albania without lifting a finger, let alone a boot.

“It’s going to be very difficult on Wednesday after a victory like this,’’ he said after Saturday’s astounding triumph in Munich.

“There’s always the danger that you think you can put one shoe or one foot or one leg forward just to win a game.

“It’s not as glamorous a game as Germany away, so let’s try to forget this victory and concentrate on Albania.

“It would be a small disaster if we beat Germany away and then lose against Albania at home. Then, this victory would be more or less worthless.’’

The right mental attitude and the sparkling form of Michael Owen, who scored a hat-trick against Germany, are key to England’s success and Eriksson paid tribute to both after Saturday’s win.

Owen, still only 21 but already a feared opponent for defenders across Europe, has clearly made a huge impression on the Swedish coach.

“For me, Michael Owen has something very special,’’ Eriksson said.

“He’s a good footballer and he’s technically excellent but he has two things which are difficult to find in a football player — he’s very cold when he has a chance to score and he’s very, very quick”.

“And if you have that combination, it’s a killer.”

Owen certainly showed no mercy in Munich, although Eriksson was also delighted to see how his young team have grown in confidence and belief in their own abilties.

Instilling the right mental attitude has been a trademark of Eriksson’s first 11 months as England coach and it paid off handsomely after his side went behind after just six minutes to Carsten Jancker’s strike on Saturday.

“The reason why we really came back into the game is that they believe we have a good team. They believe that we can do good things,” Eriksson said.

“And if you don’t believe that, it doesn’t matter how good you are. It must always start in the head.’’

Coming from behind to beat Germany 5-1 will have done wonders for that belief as England prepare for their last two games against Albania and Greece and the very real possibility that they will play on world soccer’s biggest stage next year.

“It’s important for the points in the group, it’s important for your confidence and it’s important for a young team to know that we can do this,” he said of Saturday’s achievement.

Should England fulfil their ambition of reaching the finals in Japan and South Korea, Eriksson is cautiously optimistic of their chances of a good run.

“With the squad that we have we can do well in the World Cup,” he said guardedly, adding quickly that he was not saying that England would win the World Cup.

England’s success under Eriksson has been a two-way process, with the players respecting his approach and the Swede discovering after no small amount of homework that skilful football was alive and kicking in the premier league.

Looking back, he said: “I don’t really know what expectations I had when I came.”

As so often in his 10 years at the top of motor racing, the 32-year-old German was competing against himself and the danger of losing concentration as he steered his Ferrari to an almost flawless and memorable triumph, his 52nd in 159 grands prix since his debut on the same Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 1991.

Typically, too, he admitted to one moment of near-madness when he was caught fiddling with the control buttons in the cockpit of his car and almost lost control at Stavelot.

“I was tuning the car from the inside and I just missed the apex a little and ran wide,” Schumacher said.

“I didn’t expect a problem but then, when I was sitting on the kerb, I lost control of the steering for a while and I was a bit scared of going into the wall. But, luckily, I got out of it.”

It was a typical Schumacher moment. Typically honest, too. And Typical also in that he should be fiddling around, looking for extra performance from his car, while winning his favourite race for the fifth time in 10 attempts in a decade since his maiden outing with the Jordan team in August 1991.

The victory, by a margin far greater than that reflected in the 10 seconds advantage he held over second-placed Briton David Coulthard at the finish, was his eighth of a year in which he has won the drivers’ title for a fourth time and hoisted him clear of Frenchman Alain Prost as the biggest outright winner ever.

Yet, as a notoriously poor student of Formula One history, Schumacher admitted he was not overwhelmed by the fact that he had, in some observers’ eyes, just become the greatest driver in the sport.

“To have 52 wins is a good feeling,” he said. “It is not fair to say I am not interested, at all, in statistics. I am. They do not have the first priority but they do mean something to me. It means something to me to have this number on my account.

“Actually I am delighted about it but I know I will be much more delighted one day when I am sitting on my sofa, retired, and I have a cigar and a beer in my hand and I can think about it.”

If such a notion seems far-fetched now, when Schumacher is seen as a racing machine and one of the fittest men in sport, it should be remembered that he knows how to ‘let his hair down’ when the occasion arises.

But when he has retired he will always be remembered, too, for his special association with Spa-Francorchamps where he made his maiden Formula One appearance in 1991, won his first race, in 1992, was disqualified after winning in 1994, won again in 1995, 1996 and 1997 and then led by a distance in 1998 before an enforced retirement removed him from the fray. He also finished second in 1993 and 2000.

All this adds up to something more than a special relationship.

It is a dauntingly extraordinary and productive affair, that of Schumacher and Spa, because the circuit is nearer to his family home in Kerpen than any other on the calendar and because legions of his countrymen camp out amid the rain-soaked pine forests for days to cheer him on.

“It is a special place, for me, and everyone knows it is my favourite circuit,” explained Schumacher.

“Spa is a traditional place, one of the few left. Monte Carlo and this one represent something special, they have high value to the drivers, at least in my view, and to win here is special.

“I have lots of memories, too, in my 10 years. For me, it is outstanding. To win the 52nd race here gives me extra satisfaction.’’

The spectators who witnessed another Schumacher demonstration drive yesterday would have to agree.

There was never any threat of another winner and even Eddie Jordan, the man who signed him to plug a hole in his team when he was struggling for sponsors, money and the right drivers in 1991, applauded his achievements.

Jordan, of course, kept Schumacher for only that one race. His sensational performance in qualifying, in which he took seventh place on the grid, marked him out as something special and by the following race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, he had been lured away to Benetton, who took advantage of a loophole in Schumacher’s agreement.

“Michael was in a league of his own today,” Jordan said. “I’d really like to say well done to him for making history 10 years on from his debut grand prix at this race.”

Unfortunately, on a day marred by the serious accident which caused Luciano Burto of Brazil to be evacuated to hospital in Liege from the circuit, the previous record-holder, Prost, was not around to add his congratulations. Burti was driving a Prost car when he slammed into the barriers at Blanchimont and the Frenchman was effectively too shocked to comment.

Schumacher, like Prost, was quick to think of Burti and his condition.

However, WIM Nisha Mohtoa (West Bengal) (2236) stole the limelight when she outplayed highly rated Chinese WIM Wang Yu (2382). The semi-slaby preferred by the Chinese girl did not work well as per her plan.

The Indian girl reached a favourable double Bishop advantage and in that process pocketed a full piece. With a piece down, Wang Yu had no alternative but to resign at her 56th move.

Earlier, Nisha had the opportunity of meeting Wang Yu in the Chess Olympiad at Yeravan, Armenia, way back in 1996 to fetch half-a-point.

In yet another upset on the third table, WGM Zhao Xue (China) who upset Koneru Humpy in the eleventh round of the World Juniors at Athens last month, fell down to Singapore-originated WIM Khegay Angela (Uzbekistan) here.

In the “3 Bb 3” attack against the Sicilian, the Chinese ace did not follow the sequence of loves correctly. In a premature attack without castling she could not obtain the desired result. Angela stoutly defended the position against the unwieldy attack to register a win in her 39th move.

In the cadet girls singles final, Pallavi Kundu beat Zhang Zhihan of China 2-1 while Sourav Chakravarty sidelined Bence Csaba of Canada 2-0 in the junior boys singles final to give India the second gold medal.

The third gold was won by Subhadip Das and Niloy Basak who crushed the Hungarian pair of Levente Szarka and Baliant Farago 2-0 in the sub-junior boys doubles final.