PARIS, 1 November 2003 — They are low-profile, but highly-paid and today two of the tour’s more anonymous players Jiri Novak and Andrei Pavel go head-to-head for a place in the final of the 2.45-million-euro Paris Masters here.

It is not the scenario envisaged by the organizers, who have seen the likes of top-seed and French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero and the charasmatic figures of Younes El Aynaoui and Paradorn Srichaphan dumped out of that section of the draw. Not that Czech 14th seed Novak nor Romania’s Pavel will mind.

Despite rarely making the headlines, they have managed to make almost $10 million between them from their careers in a sport crying out for characters.

Pavel put his injury-ravaged season behind him to reach the semifinals with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over German fifth seed Rainer Schuettler. His win, which gives him a last four showdown against Novak who eased past Moroccan qualifier Hicham Arazi 6-2, 6-1, marks a remarkable turnaround for the 29-year-old Romanian who, until this week, had only won three matches all year and had missed six months through injury.

Having started the season at 26 in the world, he has slumped to 191 due a combination of poor form and an injury picked up playing against Todd Martin in Key Biscayne in March which kept him sidelined until September.

Andy Roddick celebrated his climb to the summit of men’s tennis by beating Jonas Bjorkman 7-5, 7-6 at the Paris Masters and ending a 30-year run of Swedish success.

The American, who took over as world number one just 24 hours ago, was always in control on his own serve in the first set and in one game won all four points with aces.

Swedish men had won at least one singles title in every year since 1973. But no Swede has been successful so far this year and Bjorkman was his nation’s last hope in the final tournament of the regular season.

The American will play Wimbledon champion Roger Federer or Britain’s Tim Henman in the semis.

Mauresmo and Myskina Ease Into Quarterfinals

In Villanova, Philadelphia, second seed Amelie Mauresmo of France and third seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia advanced to the quarterfinals of the Advanta Championships on Thursday after winning their opening matches.

Mauresmo survived a tough first set to defeat countrywoman Stephanie Cohen Aloro 7-6, 6-4 in the feature evening match after Myskina had earlier eased past Nicole Pratt of Australia 6-3, 6-2.

With top seed Venus Williams withdrawing from the event through injury on Sunday, Mauresmo and Myskina became the only players ranked in the world’s top-10 left in the tournament. The pair received byes directly into the second round along with the fourth and fifth seeds, Chanda Rubin and Ai Sugiyama. Japan’s Sugiyama was forced to battle hard in her match before finally subduing Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. She moves on to meet ninth-seeded American Meghann Shaughnessy in the quarterfinals. Russia’s Nadia Petrova, the seventh seed, also advanced with a hard-fought 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 win over Slovakian qualifier Martina Sucha. Petrova lines up against Rubin while Mauresmo rounds off the quarterfinals with a match against Lisa Raymond of the US. The Tier II hardcourt event on the campus of Villanova University near Philadelphia has a first place prize of $93,000.