PARIS -- Hiding behind three French Open championship trophies isn't easy, but somehow Gustavo Kuerten has pulled it off.

	The draw is working out for Gustavo Kuerten to have a shot.

Before he arrived at Roland Garros, Kuerten admitted he was struggling with his confidence. But, he said, it would return with a "few victories."

On Thursday -- in a technically brilliant display of tennis that was as dazzling as it was brief -- the Brazilian won his second French Open match, a 6-1, 6-0, 6-1 dismantling of Hicham Arazi. Depending on your definition of "few," Kuerten has reached or nearly achieved critical mass.

"I think I played tactically perfectly in the court," Kuerten said. "I think I had the game in my head before going to the court very clear, knowing how to play."

Kuerten, the No. 15 seed, already had beaten Arazi, of Morocco, in all five of their meetings and, yes, Arazi is just back after missing six weeks with an abdominal injury, but ... he was very, very ungood in a match that lasted only 82 minutes.

"Terrible," Arazi said. "You can't compare the previous meetings. That was the worst match I've ever played here. I just didn't play today -- it was no contest."

Let's review the six former champions in the draw:

Michael Chang, the 1989 champion who was playing in his 16th and final French Open, went out in the first round. Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1996 title holder, left after the second round. Albert Costa, the defending champion, needed the maximum 10 sets to get to a third-round match with either Franco Squillari or Nicolas Lapenti. No. 4 seed Carlos Moya, who won in '98, has a tough third-round match with Juan Ignacio Chela. No. 2 seed Andre Agassi, the 1999 champ, has a nice little draw; he would meet No. 7 seed Guillermo Coria in the quarterfinals.

The case can be made that Kuerten has the best chance to reach the semifinals of all the former champions. With a victory over Gaston Gaudio in the third round, he's on schedule to meet No. 1 seed Lleyton Hewitt in the round of 16 and Costa in the quarterfinals. Based on their matches Thursday, Hewitt and Costa might not have much gas left in their tanks. Kuerten? He's only 26 years old and should be fresh after his stroll against Arazi on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Some people believe that a fourth title by Kuerten would be just as big of an upset as his first in 1997, when he jolted the tennis world as the No. 66-ranked player. His wins in 2000 and 2001 were hardly a surprise. In 2000, Kuerten ended Pete Sampras' six-year run as the world's No. 1 player. And then he slowly sank.

Kuerten underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right hip last February and was sidelined for two months. Costa ended Kuerten's 17-match winning streak in the fourth round of last year's French Open, and Kuerten's only tournament win was in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. After winning 60 matches or more in 2000 and 2001, Kuerten was a relatively pedestrian 25-14 last year. His ranking was No. 37.

This year, fully recovered, he has started to look like the old Guga. His victory over Arazi was his 25th of the season, matching last year's total in late May. He opened the season with a win in Auckland, New Zealand, and reached the finals at Indian Wells, losing to Hewitt 6-1, 6-1. He would like nothing better than to meet Hewitt on the field-leveling clay courts here. Late last Friday afternoon, Kuerten was banging balls in an empty Suzanne Lenglen stadium. The sun was slanting across the court and the red clay looked more like a burnt ochre. Kuerten moved easily, but you could almost see him searching as he emitted his high-pitched moan on each follow-through. Searching for his confidence. Is there less pressure on him because no one expects him to win?

"As far as you play this tournament, it's always some extra pressure, no?" he asked the press after his victory over Arazi. "It's a big tournament. Everybody is a little tense.

"But in the same way you are motivated that you are happy to be here. So you have to put yourself in the middle term, you know, between the good and the bad things that involve a tournament like this.

"For me, it's always more good things than bad. I feel very happy to play."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.