PARIS, June 5 (Reuter): For Gustavo Kuerten and Filip Dewulf. this French Open has been the equivalent of

buskers on the metro suddenly being signed up by a major transatlantic record label.

Whether the unlikely pair can strike the right note in Friday’s men's semifinals is anyone’s guess but. in the satisfaction stakes, even the Brazilian and the equally unsung Belgian are currently lagging behind Spain's Sergi Bruguera.

Twice champion Bruguera will meet Australia's Patrick Rafter in the last four, a remote prospect for the 26-year-old from Barcelona scarcely a year ago when his career appeared to be on the skids.

Ankle ligament damage suffered three days before Christmas 1995. followed by a horrendous loss of form, led to his being eclipsed by a succession of new Spanish hopefuls and he now admits that a third men's title on Sunday would be the sweetest of moments.

"After everything that has happened to me in the last few years, when ! was injured and simply couldn't win a match it s even more enjoyable to be winning again." ne said after downing Moroccos Hicham Arazi in the quarter finals.

"I had to make incredible efforts to come back, at one stage I totally lost confidence and even winning a match seemed like a mountain to climb."

Bruguera's saviour turned out to & his father Luis, an impassive. bearded figure everpresent during his son's Roland Garros run.

"I just couldn't move on the court but my father always believed in me and always thought I could make it back".

But tor Andre Agassi, who beat him in the final, Bruguera would have won an Olympic gold medal in Atlanta last summer and, although he

started this year outside the world's top 80. he has steadily rebuilt the patient game which won him his back-to-back French titles.

If the can get past Rafter his career may well come full circle but. in a French Open where little has gone according to plan, his three unseeded rivals will all feel they have a genuine chance.

"Who would have ever thought us three would be in the semifinals?" grinned Rafter after his quarter final win over Spain's Galo Blanco. "The chances are a billion to one but that's tennis I guess,"

Apart from the Australian, bidding to become the first man from his country to win in Paris since Rod Laver in 1969, most eyes will be on Kuerten, whose garish blue-and-yellow kit tends to obscure his genuine talent.

The 20-year-old Brazilian will need to keep the ball away from Dewulfs voracious forehand which has propelled the Belgian qualifier this far. But he appears to be a player with a bright future on almost all surfaces.

The charismatic Kuerten, the rapid serving Rafter, the dogged Dewulf or the born again Bruguera? Picking a winner remains as tough in tennis as in the music business.