HOUSTON, United States (AFP) - Australia`s third-ranked Lleyton Hewitt booked a semi-final date against second-ranked American Andy Roddick at the ATP Masters Cup by defeating Argentina`s Gaston Gaudio 6-2, 6-1, here.
Hewitt, the 2001 and 2002 Masters Cup winner, joined Roddick and world number one Roger Federer in Saturday`s semi-finals with the round-robin victory, eliminating Spain`s Carlos Moya from contention.
"I`ve really stepped it up this week," Hewitt said. "I`m motivated at the moment. I play with a lot of emotion our there. There are times when you have a little bit of a downer but right at the moment I feel up for this event."
Wimbledon runner-up Roddick, with year-end world number two honors at stake against US Open runner-up Hewitt, completed an unbeaten round-robin run with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory over Argentina`s Guillermo Coria.
Roddick fired 15 aces to win his ATP-best 74th match of the year, giving him 1,008 aces for the year, the most by anyone since 1998. Only Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic had reached the milestone since 1991.
"He has got a lot of firepower out there," Hewitt said of Roddick. "He has a massive serve and a huge forehand. He runs down a lot of balls for a big guy. He moves well. He tries to come to the net a little bit more.
"You`ve just got to try and make him play one extra ball and really make him move around as much as possible, get as many of his big shots back as possible.
"You have got to take your chances. Against the best players in the world, you are only going to get one or two."
Britain`s Tim Henman and Russia`s Marat Safin will meet later with the winner claiming a semi-final berth against defending champion Federer, the US and Australian Open and Wimbledon winner who went unbeaten in the round-robin.
Safin and Henman split four prior matches, the most recent being a Henman victory more than 2 1/2 years ago at Indian Wells.
French Open champion Gaudio double faulted to hand Hewitt two breaks in the first set. Hewitt broke him twice more in the second set to win in 59 minutes.
Hewitt`s only loss here came to Federer, whose streak of 21 wins in a row over top-10 foes began here a year ago. The Swiss star has shown no problems with a left thigh injury that kept him out the past three weeks.
"Whoever is number one tries to take it to a new level. That`s what Roger is doing," Hewitt said. "That`s what drives you. That`s what motivates you to try and keep improving and be able to compete with the best players in the world.
"Guys like Andy, myself, Marat have got to try to keep up with him and try to overtake him somehow."
11/19/2004 - 23:18 GMT - AFP