Moya Upsets the Paris Master

Carlos Moya defeated Paris masters champion Marat Safin 6-4, 7-5 in the first match of the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup today.

Safin made a strong start with five aces in his first two service games to lead 2-1. But Moya had the first service break with a forehand return and a forehand crosscourt pass to go up 3-2.

Safin broke back to level at 3-3, only to drop his serve again to fall behind 5-4. He had a chance to break back once more before Moya took the first set on his fourth set point after 48 minutes.

Safin squandered two breakpoint opportunities with forehand errors in the seventh game of the second and was in trouble after being broken himself to leave Moya serving for the match at 5-4.

But Safin broke back to love for the second time in the match, only to net another forehand to hand the Spaniard his fourth service break. Moya made no mistake the second time around, closing out the match in 1 hour 41 minutes.

Tuesday's other matches have Lleyton Hewitt against Albert Costa of Spain and Costa's countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero taking on Roger Federer of Switzerland.

For the third consecutive year, the Tennis Masters Cup will decide who finishes the year ranked No.1 in the world.

Hewitt, Safin, Moya and Costa are in the Red Group, with Agassi, Ferrero, Federer and Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic in the Gold Group.

After three matches in round-robin competition, the top two players in each group advance to Saturday's semi-finals. The title match will be played Sunday.