Moya's late show upstages Agassi in Paris

Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi reached the Paris Masters quarter-finals on Thursday, intensifying their battle to end the year on top of the rankings.

Both were upstaged, however, when Spain's Carlos Moya produced an incredible fightback to oust reigning champion Sebastien Grosjean of France 3-6, 7-6, 6-1.

Grosjean, roared on by a capacity crowd in the Bercy stadium, seemed certain of a quarter-final place as he stood at 40-0 when serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set.

But Moya refused to admit defeat and, helped by a double fault at 40-30, dragged the match into a tiebreak.

Moya, who knew defeat would end his hopes of qualifying for next month's end-of-season Masters Cup in Shanghai, saved three more match points in the tiebreak before clinching the set and romping through the decider.

"He just kept fighting," said a deflated Grosjean. "I've won matches by saving match points. I beat Moya in Key Biscayne like that - this kind of thing happens, it's part of sport."

Top seed Hewitt defeated Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-2, 7-6 while Agassi was pushed hard by 13th seed Thomas Johansson before coming through 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a clash with Switzerland's Roger Federer.

The 21-year-old Australian cruised through the first set but lost serve twice in the second as a revived Kafelnikov forced him into a tiebreak.

The world number one, however, found an extra gear and clinched victory on his first match point after one hour 28 minutes.

"I felt like I played extremely well to be a set and a break up," said Hewitt. "But he came out with an all-or-nothing strategy after that and started to whack every second serve in the corner and take the initiative away."

TOP SPOT

Agassi, the only man who can prevent Hewitt topping the Champions Race for a second consecutive year, was tottering as Australian Open champion Johansson sent down 16 aces on his way to winning the first set on a tiebreak.

The 32-year-old American then saved three break points at 2-2 in the second set before gradually wearing down his opponent.

He broke Johansson's serve for the first time to clinch the second set and took the decider with a single break.

Johansson's defeat was good news for Spain's Albert Costa who now qualifies for the Masters Cup as the highest placed grand slam winner not in the top seven. Costa won the French Open.

Federer looked ominously good in his 6-2, 7-6 victory over Germany's Tommy Haas in the first match of the day.

The eighth seed was the more aggressive player throughout, mixing searing baseline drives with sliced approaches, continually leaving Haas guessing.

"It was not easy because I didn't play on centre court before today," said Federer, who had not won a match in Bercy in two previous visits.

DEFINITE

Federer, who is fifth in the Champions Race standings, now joins Juan Carlos Ferrero as a definite for the Masters Cup -- the Spaniard qualifying by virtue of Tim Henman's 6-4, 6-2 defeat by Frenchman Nicolas Escude.

Escude, who had lost his three previous encounters with the Briton, took full advantage of a below-par serving display from an opponent still hampered by a shoulder injury.

Escude will play third seed Marat Safin for a place in the semi-finals after the powerful Russian saw off Dutchman Sjeng Schalken 7-5, 7-5.

American Andy Roddick kept his slim chances of qualifying for Shanghai alive with a gritty 7-6, 7-5 victory against Romanian Andrei Pavel to set up a mouth-watering clash with fellow big-hitter Thai Paradorn Srichaphan.

"I don't pay any attention to the maths," said Roddick who needs to win here this week to have a chance. "I haven't given up on Shanghai, though, I'm still out here trying."

Paradorn continued his amazing end to the year with a 6-1, 6-4 thrashing of Argentine baseliner Guillermo Canas.

After capturing his second career title last week in Stockholm, Paradorn has moved through the draw in Bercy with the loss of only 12 games in three matches, spending a total of just two hours 35 minutes on court.