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| November 14, 2002 | Thursday | Ramazan 8, 1423 |
Big guns go down as Moya books semifinal place
SHANGHAI, Nov 13: The world’s three highest ranked players, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin, all suffered upset losses in a dramatic day of tennis at the Masters Cup here Wednesday.
Hewitt, who is hoping to become the first player since Pete Sampras to finish two consecutive years ranked number one, lost a tight match against red-hot Spaniard Carlos Moya 4-6, 5-7.
Agassi is the only player able to overtake Hewitt at the season-ending Masters Cup, but he left the court a shattered man after losing 5-7, 1-6 to the Czech Republic’s Jiri Novak in just 75 minutes.
Safin, the big serving Russian who is third in the Champions Race, completed a dismal day for the top-ranked trio losing 6-3, 4-6, 3-6 to Spain’s Albert Costa.
Moya, who briefly sat atop the world rankings in 1998, followed up a straight sets win over Safin on Tuesday with an equally impressive performance over Hewitt.
Moya’s victory over Hewitt means he is the first player to progress through the initial round-robin stage of the 3.75-million dollar tournament, with a guaranteed spot in the semifinals even ahead of his final pool match against Costa.
In an exciting final game against Hewitt, Moya blew four match points before finally driving an unplayable forehand approach shot deep to seal the match.
Earlier in the day, a shell-shocked Agassi conceded his bid to overtake Hewitt as the world number one was in serious trouble after his straight sets loss to Novak, the tournament seventh seed.
Although he has two more chances to qualify for the semi-finals with matches against Juan Carlos Ferrero and Roger Federer in the Gold Group on Thursday and Friday, Agassi said he would find it extremely difficult to regain form so quickly.
Agassi, dressed all in black, started the match brilliantly and surged to a 5-2 lead before losing his concentration, and then his confidence, to lose 11 of the next 12 games.
Agassi’s meek surrender, handing victory to Novak with an easy unforced error off his normally consistent double-handed backhand on match point, summed up his night.
He made 23 unforced errors to Novak’s 10 and served three double faults, one of them on a crucial break point in the first set.
Safin was equally unimpressive and all but booked an early flight out of Shanghai after losing to Costa.
Safin had been complaining since arriving in Shanghai about fatigue after playing 22 tournaments this year, and he was unable push his weary body any further in his three-set loss.
Following his losses to Costa and Moya, Safin has to now defeat Hewitt if he is to qualify for the semi-finals.
Safin steam-rollered Costa, the eighth seed and reigning French Open champion, in the first set, serving seven aces to none and blasting 18 winners from the baseline.
But Costa gradually started to wear down his tiring opponent on the slow indoor hardcourt, and claimed the second set when Safin dumped a forehand drop shot into the net.
Costa, who had not won a match indoors this year and endured a horrible second half of the season partly due to a back injury, broke early in the third set and held on to serve out the match in two hours and seven minutes.
Safin’s sluggish footwork and aching body contributed to him hitting 37 unforced errors in the match to Costa’s 14.
Results and standings at the season-ending Masters Cup Wednesday (* denotes new result):
Red Group: * 5-Carlos Moya (Spain) beat 1-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6-4 7-5 8-Albert Costa (Spain) beat 3-Marat Safin (Russia) 3-6 6-4 6-3
Gold Group 7-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) beat 2-Andre Agassi (U.S.) 7-5 6-1
Standings:
Red Group Player Matches won/lost Sets w/l Games w/l Carlos Moya (Spain) 2-0 4-0 26-18 Albert Costa (Spain) 1-1 3-3 26-29 Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 1-1 2-3 25-23 Marat Safin (Russia) 0-2 1-4 22-28
Gold Group Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) 1-0 2-0 13-6 Roger Federer (Switzerland) 1-0 2-0 12-7 Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 0-1 0-2 7-12 Andre Agassi (U.S.) 0-1 0-2 6-13—Reuters
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