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Curtains for Gustavo Kuerten loses to Ferrero, slips out of contention
Updated: Thursday November 15, 2001 1:26 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Lleyton Hewitt didn't have to set foot on the purple court at the SuperDome on Thursday to take a huge step toward clinching the No. 1 ranking for 2001. Losses for top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten and No. 3 Andre Agassi at the season-ending Masters Cup put the 20-year-old Australian on course to become the youngest man to finish the year at No. 1 since ATP rankings started in 1973. Kuerten is still in the running to finish consecutive years at No. 1, but hopes of retaining the championship at the season-ending tournament ended Thursday. His 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero combined with Yevgeny Kafelnikov's win over Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic knocked him out of title contention. But Hewitt, who entered the tournament 48 points behind Kuerten, is only eight points behind after picking up 20 points for each of his wins against Sebastian Grosjean and Agassi. He plays Pat Rafter in his last round-robin match on Friday. If he beats Rafter and Kuerten loses to Kafelnikov in their last round-robin encounter, Hewitt will finish the year at No. 1. Kafelnikov secured a semifinal spot with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ivanisevic, who plays Ferrero on Friday for the remaining place in the final four. Agassi was stunned by Grosjean, 6-3, 6-4 in 71 minutes, and will finish the year ranked No. 3. Grosjean moved into the semis along with Hewitt, who advanced with a match to spare. "I basically got what I deserved," Agassi said. "I was not hitting the ball that well." The seven-time Grand Slam titlist said it wouldn't be a fluke if Hewitt, who collected his first major at the U.S. Open in September, was the year-end No. 1. Hewitt's "out here after a long year and he's on the verge of being No. 1 -- that's certainly not luck," Agassi said. If he winds up on top of the rankings, Hewitt will replace Jimmy Connors as the youngest male player to be No. 1 at season's end. Connors was 22 when he finished first in 1974. Agassi had break point in the first game but Grosjean saved it with a wide second serve. Grosjean saved another break point in the fourth game and broke Agassi at love in the fifth with a sequence of winners that included a backhand passing shot, a punishing forehand down the line and a forehand passing shot to seal it. The Frenchman went to a 5-2 lead, breaking deuce with consecutive aces, then serving out at love in the ninth game with a forehand crosscourt winner on set point. "You don't expect somebody so small to be able to hit them wide," Agassi said. "So he's hitting the corners well, going for his spots well." In the second set, Grosjean had a three-game run, breaking Agassi's serve in the fifth game, that sparked the win. He had three match points serving at 5-4 before the 31-year-old American fought back to deuce. But Grosjean, a semifinalist this year at the Australian and French Opens, held his nerve and Agassi put a backhand return into the net. "I played well since the first point of the match," Grosjean said. "I did not serve very well but I served good in the big points and made a big shot at the good moments." He said he'd grown in confidence after winning the Paris Indoor earlier this month to qualify seventh for the Masters Cup. "You are more confident and you start thinking you can beat more players in the top 10," said Grosjean. "So I came here with confidence and I played three great matches here." Kuerten, who lost to Ivanisevic in his opening match, needed the Croat to beat Kafelnikov to remain in contention for the title. "If Lleyton gets No. 1, he'll deserve it because he's played the best tennis in the last two to three months," Kuerten said. The Brazilian has not added to his 771 points in Sydney. Agassi, who had 704 points going into his match with Grosjean, had been the only other player with any chance of making No. 1. It was Agassi's first tournament since his wife, Steffi Graf, gave birth to their son last month.
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