PARIS, 31 October 2003 — American Andy Roddick took over as world number one yesterday after reaching the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.
The US Open champion is the 22nd player to top the rankings since they were introduced in 1973 and the sixth American-born player after Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.
Roddick beat Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4 in the last 16 to topple Juan Carlos Ferrero from the top spot.
Roddick’s elevation to the summit followed Ferrero’s shock 7-5, 7-5 defeat by Czech Jiri Novak earlier yesterday.
The American now leads the Champions Race and will be confirmed as number one in the 12-month Entry System rankings next Monday.
Roddick’s serve was too much for Robredo, seeded 16th, to handle as the 21-year-old’s bullet deliveries repeatedly thwacked into the backboards on the centre court in Paris.
The second seed kept the pressure on by hurrying through his serves and broke Robredo’s delivery in the fourth game of the first set and the third of the second.
After this tournament, Roddick and Ferrero travel to Houston for the season-ending Masters Cup, starting on Nov. 8, where the year-end number one will be crowned. Despite his achievement, Roddick said reaching number one was not as important to him as winning in Paris and Houston. “Every match win or lose could be the difference,” said Roddick, who will next play Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden.
David Nalbandian of Argentina became the eighth and last player to qualify for the Masters Cup after Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan was beaten 7-6, 6-3 by qualifier Hicham Arazi of Morocco, after leading 5-2 in the first set. Eighth seed Paradorn could have scraped into the Houston event if he had won in Paris. Nalbandian pulled out of this tournament with a wrist injury and may not be fit for the Masters Cup.
Novak broke Ferrero’s serve in the fourth game of the first set and although the Spaniard broke back immediately, his inability to impose himself in a series of long rallies left him muttering disconsolately on the baseline. Serving at 5-6, 40-30 Ferrero served a double fault and then netted two forehands - the second following a superb return of serve by the Czech - to give Novak the set. Ferrero wasted two break points in the fifth game of the second set and Novak kept plugging away from the baseline, confident that he could take advantage of an unusual off-day for his opponent, the winner of four tournaments this year. Ferrero, serving at 4-5 to stay in the match, served a double fault for 30-30 and quickly went 30-40 down. He saved the first match point when Novak hit a forehand long and a second after a serve was called an ace when television replays showed it to be clearly out.
The Czech kept his composure, however, and won Ferrero’s next service game with ease to reach a quarterfinal against Arazi.
Fifth seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany beat 10th seed Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-4, 7-5 and now plays Romania’s Andrei Pavel whose opponent, fourth seed Guillermo Coria of Argentina, withdrew with a fever.
