Hewitt hangs on to top spot
Ossian Shine
With the big prize safely tucked up, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt celebrated holding on to his year-end world number one ranking by giving Marat Safin the runaround in a Masters Cup group match on Thursday.
Hewitt, whose progress in the tournament depends on the outcome of Friday's clash between Albert Costa and Carlos Moya, won the academic contest 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 but still showed enough of the grit that allowed him to join Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras as players to have held the top ranking for a whole calendar year.
All week the Australian had been talking about the ranking and Andre Agassi's failure to fight off Juan Carlos Ferrero in a Gold Group match earlier in the third day ensured Hewitt held on to it. He becomes only the seventh player to end back-to-back years in top spot.
Since rankings were introduced into professional men's tennis in 1973, only Connors, Lendl, Sampras, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg and Bjorn Borg have managed the feat.
"I knew about it before I went on court and just wanted to come out here and get a win to make the night even sweeter," Hewitt beamed courtside immediately after eliminating Safin from the contest.
IRREPRESSIBLE HEWITT
Safin's season is not over, though. He still has a Davis Cup final for Russia against France to look forward to at the end of the month.
Hewitt was irrepressible as he waited to collect his year-end trophy. "I'm just over the moon to get this trophy again," he said before taking ownership of the Waterford crystal prize.
Agassi fought for his life in the Chinese sea port but could not outlast the Spaniard, losing 7-5, 2-6, 7-6.
The American needed to win the $3.7 million season-ending tournament to stand a chance of becoming the oldest player to end a year top of the pile, and having already lost to Jiri Novak in his opening match, he needed to win to stay alive in the contest.
Agassi's disappointment was palpable afterwards as he struggled to describe his feelings.
"I don't think it would be possible (to explain) really... I wouldn't know how to communicate it," he said.
FRITTERED AWAY
But he looked ill at ease and distracted as he frittered away the opening set, netting a backhand on Ferrero's third set point.
It was a different Agassi who roared on to the court for the second set, though, and he reeled off the first four games to put himself firmly in charge.
Pummelling groundstrokes and stretching the Spaniard with angled serves and volleys, he thrilled the Chinese crowd at the New Shanghai International Expo Centre with some textbook tennis to level the match.
The pair stood toe-to-toe for the third set, Agassi hitting harder and harder and Ferrero retrieving for all his worth.
Agassi saw a glimmer of light in the ninth game when he earned two break points but he missed the first with a flicked backhand off a drop shot and Ferrero saved the second with an ace before holding on.
Ferrero forged ahead 6-5 by holding serve to heap the pressure on Agassi.
Once more Agassi proved himself up to the task, staving off one match point and forcing a tiebreak with a thunderous forehand winner down the line.
He nosed ahead in the tiebreak but allowed Ferrero back into it and a forehand fired long gave Ferrero three more match points at 6-3.
Agassi fought them off with some lion-hearted rallying but immediately netted a forehand to give the Spaniard his fifth match point. Ferrero needed no heroics on this one as Agassi tamely threw in a double fault.
Despite the American's immense disappointment he insisted on looking ahead. "Next year I will approach with expectations of it being better," he said. "The key will be consistency."
