Hewitt battles past Agassi as Roddick falls

Lleyton Hewitt won the battle of the ages in the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters on Friday as he overcame Andre Agassi 7-5 6-3.

Hewitt will play Fernando Gonzalez in the last four of the $2.95 million event after he upset Andy Roddick 7-6 7-6.

Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya will contest the other, all-Spanish, semi-final.

The 21-year-old world number one is 11 years Agassi's junior, but he showed no signs of sentiment in his victory over the seven-time grand slam champion in front of a capacity 10,500 crowd.

"I knew I had to step it up," Hewitt said.

"This was like a big grand slam final for me, to play against Andre Agassi, a guy I grew up watching.

"This year, I think the two of us have been probably a little bit ahead of a large group of very good hard court players. It was always going to be a tough match."

Agassi made the early running before Hewitt fought back in an hour long opening set that was marked by five breaks of serve.

The Australian broke decisively for 6-5 and served out the set to love.

The second set was equally as competitive until Hewitt applied enough pressure to break his opponent to love at 3-3.

The top seed was ruthless thereafter and didn't allow Agassi another game.

"He played well when he was behind and he played well when he was up," Agassi said. "At the end of the day that was enough."

Hewitt now has a winning 4-2 record over Agassi in career matches, having won their last three contests.

SURPRISE VICTORY

Hewitt plays the world number 39 Gonzalez for a place in the final after the Chilean scored the surprise of the day by knocking out 12th seeded Roddick in front of a capacity crowd.

Gonzalez's display of fearless power hitting was too much for Roddick.

The American fought back from a break down to force a first set tiebreaker but could do little to stop the onslaught from Gonzalez.

Roddick made the early running in the second set, breaking for 3-2, but couldn't maintain the momentum as the Chilean came up with a string of winners.

Gonzalez broke back for 4-4 and though Roddick serve saved him from one match point down at 4-5, and four match points in the second set tiebreaker, a searing forehand winner from Gonzalez on the sixth decided matters.

"I tried to scrap but he was just too good tonight," Roddick said.

"I felt I was hitting the ball pretty clean but some of the shots he hit were unreal."

The 19-year-old said he enjoyed the experience despite his defeat.

"The crowd were awesome tonight and they made it a pleasure to play. I had a blast out there," he said.

"That's how tennis should be."

SPANISH FINALIST

Spain is guaranteed a man in the final for the first time in 19 years after Ferrero set up a meeting with Moya following wins earlier on Friday.

Ferrero beat big-serving Australian Wayne Arthurs 6-4 7-6 in the second quarter-final, which followed Moya's 7-6 6-1 defeat of Germany's Rainer Schuettler.

"It was difficult to play him because you can't read where his serve is going to go," Ferrero said.

"You have to serve very solid and hope to break him but it is not easy."

The last time a Spanish man made the final in Cincinnati was in 1973 when Manuel Orantes was runner-up.

Former world number one Moya was the first man through to the last four with his win over Schuettler.

Moya, seeded 16, eked out a close first set and then accelerated away in the second, wrapping it up in 29 minutes.

"The first set was tough, I didn't feel that I was controlling the match," Moya said.

"When I took the first set it was much easier for me. The key was my forehand, it was very powerful today. I just tried to push hard and it was a very good match for me."

The tournament marks Moya's best performance on hard courts so far this year although he has done well on European clay.

He reached the final of the Monte Carlo Masters in April, where he was beaten by Ferrero, and has won three clay court titles -- the Mexican Open in Acapulco in March and the Croatia and Swedish Opens in July.

Prior to this week his record on hard courts in 2002 was seven wins to six losses, two of which were at the hands of Schuettler.