Tags:
Journalism of Courage
HANOVER, NOV 26: Top-ranked Andre Agassi became the first player to advance to the semi-finals of the ATP Tour World Championship by beating Gustavo Kuerten 6-4, 7-5.
Agassi advanced to the last four without dropping a set in his three Red Group matches.
The Red Group will be decided today, when Pete Sampras plays Nicolas Lapentti. Kuerten, 1-2, could theoretically still advance. Sampras is 1-1 and Lapentti is 0-2. Sampras needs to win a set to advance.
In the White Group, Nicolas Kiefer beat Todd Martin 6-3, 6-2 to stay alive and Yevgeny Kafelnikov picked up his second victory by outlasting Thomas Enqvist.
Kafelnikov, No 2 in the world, raised his record to 2-0 after beating Enqvist 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, while the fourth-ranked Enqvist dropped to 1-1.
Because of the round-robin format, all four were still in the running for the two semi-finals places. Kiefer is now 1-1 and Martin fell to 0-2. The group will be decided tonight.
The $3.6 million season-ending tournament brings together the top eightplayers in the world, who are split into two groups. The top two from each pool advance to the last four.
After his victory, Agassi received the ATP Tour trophy for finishing the year as No 1. Agassi is assured of staying No 1 for the year even if he fails to win the event.
