BBC SPORT | Tennis | Agassi within sight of summit

Saturday's results

Andre Agassi closed in on current Champions Race leader Lleyton Hewitt as he dug deep to oust Sebastien Grosjean in the semi-finals of the Madrid Masters.

Agassi, along with Hewitt the only player to have already qualified for the end-of-season Masters Cup, is now only 73 points behind the Australian and will close further if he defeats Jiri Novak in Sunday's final.

Agassi, the second seed, edged out Grosjean 6-4 3-6 6-4 with the Frenchman left to rue a piece of luck for his opponent in the final set.

The American's forehand crept over the net to leave Grosjean stranded and needing to save two match points.

Quarter-final review

"Grosjean is so quick about court I had to make sure I was going for the right shot every time," Agassi said.

"I had to find a way to beat him and the serve was absolutely crucial."

Agassi started brightly, serving well, but it was three forehand errors from the seventh seed that gave him the first set.

Jiri Novak celebrates victory against Paradorn Srichaphan
Jiri Novak is closing on a Masters Cup place

The Frenchman battled back to take the second set, before Agassi's good fortune allowed him to wrap up the match in the third set.

Czech 11th seed Novak needed no such luck, sweeping past Santoro to set up a meeting with Agassi and reach his first final of a Tennis Masters Series event.

Novak is now fifth in the rankings and on course for a place in the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai but he admitted that he could struggle against in-form Agassi.

"I don't know what I'll have to do to beat him," Novak said.

"I'll just fight for every ball. I won't have anything to lose because I've never managed to take a set off him before."

Masters Cup: the race to Shanghai


	Links to more Tennis stories