Hewitt out-slugs Agassi to close on No 1 spot

Lleyton Hewitt strengthened his claim on the year-end top ranking when he outfought Andre Agassi 6-3 6-4 in a Masters Cup round robin match on Wednesday.

But Pat Rafter, Hewitt's Davis Cup team mate, saw his own Masters hopes end when he was beaten 7-6 6-3 by in-form Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, who is likely to face the two Australians at the Davis Cup final in Melbourne from November 30.

Australian Hewitt dominated a surprisingly scrappy contest and leapt with joy when Agassi put an attempted drop shot into the net after 91 minutes at Homebush Bay.

"It's up there, it felt pretty good tennis out there," U.S. Open champion Hewitt said when asked to rank only his second career win over Agassi, the winner of seven Grand Slam titles.

"I thought I hit the ball bloody well tonight."

Hewitt and Agassi are trying to topple French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten in the Champions' Race at the season-ending tournament, the 20-year-old Australian bidding to become the youngest player to end the year with the top ranking.

"I'm not thinking about it (the number one ranking)," Hewitt said. "Like I keep saying, if it happens, it happens."

Eleven years Hewitt's senior, Agassi is hoping to become the oldest to achieve the feat but he was unhappy with his performance in a match marred by unforced errors and inconsistent serving.

"With all due respect to the way he played, I think I was a far cry from my best," the American said. "I'm quite disappointed with the way I executed my shots."

Undefeated Hewitt booked himself a semifinal place after downing Agassi.

The American must now beat Grosjean in their final round robin match on Thursday to determine who becomes the second semifinalist from the John Newcombe Group.

Rafter, though, has no chance of progressing after falling to both Grosjean and Agassi.

Agassi and Hewitt began their match with a succession of long baseline rallies on the backhand side, probing for an advantage.

EXPERIENCED OPPONENT

Third seed Agassi made the first break of serve in the third game but his advantage soon crumbled as the pair swapped breaks for four successive games.

Hewitt steadied the ship in the seventh game as his more experienced opponent's service game fell apart. Agassi dropped four straight service games to hand Hewitt the first set and an important advantage in the first game of the second.

Agassi, the Australian Open champion, looked uncharacteristically tentative, while Hewitt managed to control his wayward serve and found his range with a succession of forehand winners.

He took full advantage by winning five straight games to establish a 2-0 lead in the second set from which not even Agassi, the great fighter, was able to recover.

Agassi broke Hewitt again in the sixth game of the second set but immediately dropped his own serve, meekly surrendering it with a double fault, and Hewitt produced three aces in a row to reinforce his advantage.

Agassi and Hewitt won their first round robin matches on Monday over Rafter and Grosjean respectively, and Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic's defeat of Kuerten on Tuesday gave them both a little breathing space.

By Tuesday, Kuerten's lead over Hewitt had been cut by 20 points to just 28, with Agassi another 39 points back.

Hewitt's victory over Agassi cut that lead to a notional eight points, although the out-of-form Kuerten plays his second match of the Ken Rosewall Group on Thursday.

Kuerten's form has faltered since the U.S. Open, the Brazilian suffering four first-round defeats since the last Grand Slam of the season.

Rafter was outplayed by Paris Masters champion on Wednesday but was also in pain from a shoulder injury that has troubled him for most of this year.

He required treatment on his shoulder late in the second set and returned to the court with his elbow and forearm strapped.

Despite the pain of his injury and the importance of the Davis Cup, Rafter said he needed match practice and would not pull out of his dead match against Hewitt.