Moya eliminates Agassi in quarters

PARIS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Spain's Carlos Moya booked his trip to Shanghai Friday with a brilliant quarterfinal victory over Andre Agassi at the BNP Masters that left the second-seeded American grumbling about the officiating.

Less than 24 hours after saving six match points against defending champion Sebastien Grosjean, the 10th-seeded Moya defeated Agassi, 6-4, 6-4, at the $2.95 million event to clinch a spot in the elite eight-man field for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

That event will be played Nov. 12-17.

"Tactically I played very well today and I can really say that this match was one of my best ever in an indoor tournament," Moya said. "Today I tried to mix my game, slide the ball as well as hit it hard and it went very well, I am very proud of my match."

The win moved Moya past Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic and into sixth place in the ATP Champions Race. It will be the first time the Spaniard has played at the season-ending event since reaching the final of the ATP World Championship in 1998.

"I don't know how I managed to be so good this week, I was not expecting such a success," Moya said. "My first two matches (against James Blake and Grosjean) were the toughest mentally because I knew that I needed to win them both to keep my chances to qualify for the Masters Cup alive."

Agassi, trying to become the oldest player to finish the season as the world's top-ranked player, verbally jostled with Cedric Mourier when the chair umpire over-ruled calls in the second set.

"The umpire made a wrong decision three times, he had a bad judgement and it was horrible for the match because he thought he was right," Agassi said. "That man had the power to change the course of the match. These decisions were arbitrary.

"I served a ball which I really thought had hit the line and the umpire's responsibility is to be 100 percent sure and (Mourier) thought he was 100 percent sure. What can you do except be at the mercy of people like that? I can live with my game not being good, but it's hard to live with someone deciding to change the course of the match.

"Once the umpires start over-ruling decisions they are almost obligated to continue and today Mourier started very early. But, again, I guess this is part of the game and the competition, that's the way it goes sometimes. But it was very upsetting."

Agassi's spats with Mourier were a distraction to Moya.

"It was not easy for me," the Spaniard said. "Every time he was complaining he would get the support from the crowd. But I tried to remain focused on my game, mentally I was very strong and this was definitely the key of the match for me."

The 32-year-old Agassi did give Moya credit for the win.

"Carlos played better than I did and he deserved this victory, Agassi said. "When I did have control of the points I let him get away with a few shots. But I must admit that he was too good today."

Moya will play third seed Marat Safin of Russia, who held on for a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Nicolas Escude of France.

Safin won one of his 10 career titles here two years ago, but has yet to claim a tournament victory this season. He was runner-up at the Australian Open and Hamburg.

"Life is not ending, you know? That's one year without winning any tournament, is not really bad," the 22-year-old Russian said. "I'm still No. 3 in the world, so is not so bad."

Safin secured his place for Shanghai on Wednesday.

"I have no more pressure to get anywhere," he said. "I can just play my tennis, I can enjoy being on the court and play some great matches. It's much easier for me. It's just easier for everybody to play without pressure."

After Agassi lost to Moya, top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia extended his lead over Agassi in the battle to finish at No. 1 with a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over eighth seed Roger Federer of Switzerland. The reigning Wimbledon champion owns a 63-point advantage over Agassi in the ATP Champions Race.

"I feel fine, my game has become better and better throughout the tournament," Hewitt said. "But I am not playing for the No. 1 spot at the moment even if I am happy to have displayed good tennis this week. It's important for me to reach the semis ahead of the Masters Cup because I have not played much in the past weeks. Now I feel I can step it up, this is my best result in Paris knowing that it's been tough for all the guys at this time of the year."

The 21-year-old Australian will square off against red-hot Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand in the semifinals.

Srichaphan eliminated No. 12 Andy Roddick of the United States, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3), for his 29th victory in his last 35 matches. Over that span, the 23-year-old from Bangkok won his first two career titles at Long Island in August and last week in Stockholm, reached the final at Washington and the semifinals at Tashkent and Tokyo.