Yevgeny Kafelnikov nailed down a place in the semi-finals and in turn dumped defending champion Gustavo Kuerten from the Masters Cup in Sydney on Thursday.
The Russian fifth seed was too methodical for the erratic Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, winning 6-3, 6-4 in one hour six minutes to remain unbeaten in the year-ending Masters tournament.
Kafelnikov`s victory effectively ended Kuerten`s hopes of defending his Masters crown won last year in Lisbon and more than likely snuffed out his chances of finishing the season as world No.1. Earlier, Kuerten slumped to a straight sets defeat against Spain`s Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-7 (3/7), 2-6 to remain win-less after two round-robin matches in the Ken Rosewall Group.
Another big-name casualty was seven-time grand slam winner Andre Agassi, who crashed out of semi-final contention to his 2001 French Open conqueror Sebastien Grosjean, 3-6, 4-6 in Thursday`s late match in the other John Newcombe Group.
Kuerten leads Australian Lleyton Hewitt by eight points in the race to finish 2001 as the top-ranked player and with 20 points on offer for a round-robin victory, Hewitt could supplant the faltering triple French Open champion as No.1 after the matches on Friday.
Ivanisevic and Ferrero will play off on Friday for the remaining semi-final position.
Grosjean, who hammered Agassi in four sets in the quarter-finals of this year`s French Open, again was the American`s master easily winning in one hour 11 minutes to clinch a semi-final place having only qualified for the Masters a fortnight ago with victory in Paris. "It`s a very disappointing end to the year, basically I got what I deserved as I wasn`t hitting the ball well," said Agassi. "If you`re not at your best and you play the best, they can expose that."
Bureau Report