Hewitt, Moya cruise into semis

World number one Lleyton Hewitt cruised into the semi-finals of the Paris Masters with a clinical 6-4, 6-4 victory over Roger Federer on Friday while Andre Agassi crashed out to Carlos Moya by the same score.

Hewitt was upstaged later, however, when Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan won the battle of the big hitters, outgunning American Andy Roddick 7-6, 7-6.

Paradorn, who will play Hewitt on Saturday, extended his winning streak to nine matches after a hugely entertaining clash on centre court that included 33 aces.

"If everything's working, he looks unbeatable," said Hewitt of the Thai who beat him convincingly in Tokyo last month.

Agassi, who at 32 is bidding to become the oldest player to end the year as world number one, was outplayed by Moya as the Spaniard guaranteed his qualification for the Masters Cup in Shanghai with a near-flawless performance.

The 1998 French Open winner will play third seed Marat Safin in the semi-final after the powerful Russian ended French hopes at the tournament with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 defeat of the unseeded Nicolas Escude.

Agassi, the only man who can catch Hewitt in the Champions Race, started poorly against Moya, failing to find his range from the baseline as his opponent ran him all over the court to take the first set in 32 minutes.

BROKE EARLY

Moya broke early in the second before Agassi finally sparked into life.

He broke back after chasing down a dropshot and the pumped-up American then received a warning for an audible obscenity after umpire Cedric Mourier overruled a first serve at 30-30. It was one of several decisions to go against Agassi.

For a while the seven-times Grand Slam winner threatened to turn the match around but Moya broke serve again to lead 4-3 and, after saving three break points at 5-4, served out for what he described as "one of the best victories of my career".

Agassi was generous in his praise of the 10th-seeded Spaniard, but was scathing in his criticism of the umpire.

"Carlos played better than me today, end of story," he said. "But, when an umpire overrules three times on first serves, and twice at 30-all, I just think that's bad judgement. I fundamentally struggle with that."

Asked what he had said to the umpire in a frosty exchange at the end of the one-hour-21-minute contest, Agassi replied: "I told him he did a pathetic job."

For 26-year-old Moya, winner of four ATP titles this year, the season just gets better and better.

'BEST EVER'

"Tactically I played very well today," said the Spaniard. "I'm very proud of this match. I think it was probably my best ever, especially indoors.

"After beating (Sebastien) Grosjean I went to bed at three o'clock in the morning and couldn't sleep well. I thought I was going to be really tired but I ran like crazy out there.

"I don't know what would have happened if it had gone to a third set -- he probably would have won."

Hewitt had few alarms against a strangely hesitant Federer, breaking one in each set to wrap up a straightforward victory.

Switerland's Federer wasted five break points in the first set as his usual fluency deserted him while the 21-year-old Hewitt ruthlessly took his chances when they came along.

"I'm delighted to be in the semi-finals," he said. "I feel that I've been getting better and better with every match."

Safin, still looking for his first title of the year, appears to be in the mood to end his drought in Bercy where he lifted the title in 2000 and was runner-up in 1999.

WORST START

Escude, the most impressive Frenchman on view this week, got off to the worst possible start when he double-faulted twice on the way to losing his opening service game.

After dropping the first set 6-3, Escude broke at the start of the second, moving forward at every opportunity to force mistakes off the Russian.

Safin hit back in the fourth game but Escude lifted the excitable crowd when he came up with several brilliant passes to break again for a 6-5 lead before levelling the match on serve.

French joy was short-lived, however, as the Russian regained the initiative in the third set, clinching victory on his second match point.

"I didn't play very well for the last couple of months but I feel that my confidence is coming back," said Safin.

Looking ahead to Saturday's semi-final clash with Moya, he added: "He beat me in Monte Carlo 7-6 in the third, so it will be great to get revenge for that."

Roddick had few complaints after seeing his slim Masters Cup hopes disappear in his loss to Paradorn -- a match that turned into a competition to see who could hit the ball the hardest.

"I just tried to have fun," said the 20-year-old. "There's no point beating yourself up if the guy's painting lines all over the place. I didn't play that badly. I could have hit my second serve returns a bit better, but he came up big.

"He was ranked in the 70s around Wimbledon; now, after this, he's going to be around 15. Whatever he's doing, he needs to keep doing it."