MELBOURNE, Australia -- After winning his third French Open title last year, Gustavo Kuerten scraped a heart in the clay with his racket and lay down in it. Nothing, it seemed, could go wrong in Paris.

And nothing, it seems, ever goes right for him on the hardcourts in Melbourne.

Grim and sluggish with a hip injury, Kuerten let a two-set lead slide away Monday in a first-round loss to Julien Boutter at the Australian Open. In six attempts, the Brazilian has never passed this Grand Slam's second round.

Kuerten summoned a trainer on court twice to massage his upper thighs during his 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 loss to the Frenchman. Afterward, Kuerten said he is awaiting the results of hospital tests.

"It's already eight months. I'm feeling this," he said.

Kuerten's exit raises questions about whether he'll ever be a consistent threat on fast surfaces. His top-spin, backcourt game loses bite on the swifter Rebound Ace at Melbourne Park. He acknowledged that he was having trouble generating power on hardcourts and carpet.

"You've got to have belief that you are capable of winning on the fast surface, and you've got to have a game," said Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who has established himself on all surfaces. "Guga is by far the best clay court player in the world. But it seems to me, on the fast surface, he does struggle."

Not always. Last year, Kuerten beat Patrick Rafter in the hardcourt final in Cincinnati and advanced to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open, where he was the first South American to be seeded first since Pancho Segura in 1944.

"You look at his other results and he has won plenty of big tournaments," said Tim Henman, a traditional serve-and-volleyer. "So he is certainly capable of it."

Kuerten, who skipped Australia's raft of warmup tournaments, lacked preparation. Like many other players, he was coming off a long break.

"He's a player who needs a lot of match practice. He usually needs two or three matches to get going," said Tony Roche, a former top Australian player and Davis Cup-winning coach.

Kuerten, who lost to Boutter in Switzerland last year, said he didn't expect to win because he hadn't played a match in two months.

The Australian Open is "too early for me," he said. "Sometimes it is tough to get my rhythm going and myself comfortable."

Last year, Kuerten skipped the fast grass of Wimbledon but won a career-high six tournaments, including his third French Open in five years. Thirteen of his 16 titles have come on clay.

Kuerten fizzled toward the end of the year, losing all three of his matches at the Masters Cup in Sydney, enabling Australia's Lleyton Hewitt to seize the No. 1 ranking.

Kuerten made just three errors in the first 14 games against Boutter. But the animated Frenchman was soon dictating the points, pouncing on short balls and dashing to net.

Boutter, a big server who is No. 53 in the world, said an injured opponent can still be dangerous because he hits without restraint.

"It's not so easy to keep the ball in, continue to put pressure on your opponent," said Boutter, who hit 37 aces to Kuerten's 12. "That was my weapon today -- it was to never, never let him come back."