World No.1 Lleyton Hewitt qualified for the semi-finals of the Tennis Masters Cup when Carlos Moya eliminated fellow Spaniard Albert Costa at The New Shanghai International Expo Centre.

Moya's fighting 7-6 (9-7) 3-6 6-4 victory in a marathon encounter lasting five minutes shy of three hours rubbished pre-match talk of a Spanish fix.

It also gave the fifth seed an unbeaten record as Gold Group winner after the round-robin stage of the season-ending championship.

Moya was to meet the winner of the second match between Jiri Novak and Juan Carlos Ferrero in tomorrow's semi-finals.

Hewitt, as runner-up in the Red Group with two wins and a loss in his three matches, will play Gold Group winner Roger Federer, who was 2-0 heading into his meaningless encounter against Thomas Johansson.

Johansson, the Australian Open champion, was filling in for Andre Agassi after the second-seeded American withdrew last night citing a hip injury.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP