Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Sebastian Grosjean advanced to the semi-finals of the Masters Cup today as Andre Agassi bowed out of the race to finish the year ranked number one in the world.
Grosjean ended Agassi's bid to become the oldest man in history to finish the year as No. 1 with a 6-3 6-4 victory at Sydney's SuperDome.
The Frenchman will now meet Kafelnikov in Saturday's semi-finals after the Russian beat Goran Ivanisevic 6-3 6-4.
Ivanisevic will play Juan Carlos Ferrero on Friday for a place in the semi-finals against Lleyton Hewitt after Ferrero beat current world number one Gustavo Kuerten 7-6 6-2.
Kuerten's loss finished his own hopes of reaching the semi-finals and also dented his chances of retaining his top ranking, with Hewitt now poised to become the youngest No.1 in history.
The Australian will finish the year on top if he makes the final, or if he beats Patrick Rafter on Friday and Kuerten loses to Kafelnikov.
Almost resigned to losing his ranking, the badly-out-of-form Kuerten said: "If Lleyton gets the number one, it will be well deserved.
"He's been playing the best tennis in the last two or three months."