Without a win since the fourth round of the US Open, it was the third time in as many tournaments that the top-seeded Brazilian had lost his opening match.
With Lleyton Hewitt just 34 points behind and eyeing the number one ranking, Kuerten arrived in Basle looking to put some distance between himself and the Australian, who pulled out injured from this week’s Stockholm Open.
The 62nd-ranked Boutter, who plays his best tennis indoors as he showed by reaching the Milan final earlier this year, was always going to be a potentially tricky first-round opponent.
The big-serving Boutter, still searching for his first career title, finally gained the upper hand in the tiebreak, surging in front 3-0 and then holding on to win 7-3. Kuerten smashed his racket on to the court in frustration.
The French Open champion appeared to steady himself when he broke Boutter early in the second set to go up 2-1.
However, Boutter immediately broke back, then again at 4-2, and again to close out the match for the biggest win of his career.
Eighth seed Jan-Michael Gambill was also an opening round casualty, the American forced to retire with a shoulder injury after dropping the first set 6-4 to Swiss George Bastl.
Trailing 5-4, Gambill called for the trainer and an injury timeout to have his right shoulder massaged. He returned to the court but after losing the next game he abandoned the match when the pain persisted.
Fourth seed Roger Federer, who lives near Basle, delighted a sell-out crowd at the St Jacobshalle as he eased past Spain’s Albert Costa 6-3 6-3.
Sixth seed Andy Roddick, with just one win since losing to Hewitt in the quarter-finals of the US Open, also continued to struggle to find his indoor form, the American teenager needing a third-set tiebreak to slip past French qualifier Stephane Huet 6-2 3-6 7-6.
Wednesday’s first round results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Andrei Pavel (Romania) beat Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3; Julien Boutter (France) beat 1-Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2; 4-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Albert Costa (Spain) 6-3 6-3; 6-Andy Roddick (U.S.) beat Stephane Huet (France) 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7-5); George Bastl (Switzerland) beat 8-Jan-Michael Gambill (U.S.) 6-4 ret; Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) beat Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) 6-4 3-6 6-3; Xavier Malisse (Belgium) beat Leos Friedl (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-7 (8-10) 6-2; Nenad Zimonjic (Yugoslavia) beat Fernando Vicente (Spain) 4-6 6-3 6-2
ST PETERSBURG: Andrei Medvedev won his first match in four months when he knocked out fourth-seed Tommy Haas 3-6 7-6 6-4 in the first round of the St Petersburg Open on Wednesday.
Haas, fresh from winning the Masters Cup series in Stuttgart last week, had a match point against the 172-ranked Ukrainian in the second set tiebreaker but let it slip away.
Saving a match point in the second-set tiebreaker, Medvedev, who had not played a match on the ATP Tour since July, broke Haas in the third game of the final set to take a 2-1 lead.
The German levelled at 3-3 by breaking back in the sixth game but then double-faulted to lose his serve in the ninth game. Medvedev clinched the match after one hour and 55 minutes.
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero suffered a shock 7-6 6-4 defeat by German Rainer Schuettler.
Schuettler took just over two hours to defeat Ferrero, who hung on to save three set points in the first set, before going down 10-8 in the tie break.
Ferrero has already qualified for the season-ending Masters Cup in Sydney next month, which pits the eight best players of the year against each other.
In other first round matches Max Mirnyi of Belarus beat Czech Jiri Novak 6-0 7-6 to set up a second-round clash with Briton Greg Rusedski.—Reuters