SAFIN LOSES NUMBER 1 SPOT TO KUERTEN

After a wonderful week of tennis, in which the two Russians Marat Safin and Yevgueny Kafelnikov were involved in the finals of the Masters Cup in Lisbon, the world’s best eight players playing to see who is the world number 1, Marat Safin lost top notch to Brazil’s Gustavo “Guga” Kuerten. Safin made it to the semi-final after beating Alex Corretja (Spain) 6 – 7, 7 – 5, 6 – 3 and Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6 – 4, 6 – 4 before being beaten by Andrй Agassi (USA) by 3 – 6, 3 – 6, after injuring himself in the second set.

Kafelnikov beat Sweden’s Magnus Norman 4 - 6, 7 – 5, 6 – 1 but lost to Agassi 1 – 6, 4 – 6 and to the champion, Kuerten, 3 – 6, 4 – 6.

In the final, Kuerten beat Agassi 6 – 4, 6 – 4, 6 – 4 to take ATP ranking number 1 spot from Safin. This was Lisbon’s first taste of first-class tennis and the public enjoyed the very high quality of technique and sportsmanship as the local madia struggled to accompany the events on the court in the Atlantic Pavilion, Lisbon’s new show-piece indoor sports venue, with capacity for 12,500 spectators. Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru, Lisbon