Agassi masters Safin

Marat Safin was outplayed and outclassed

Andre Agassi bt Marat Safin 6-3 6-3

Andre Agassi destroyed world number one Marat Safin to book his place in the final of the Masters Cup in Lisbon.

Russian Safin only needed to beat Agassi to guarantee ending the year as the world's top player.

Safin must now hope that Pete Sampras denies Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten the chance by winning the other semi-final later on Saturday.

Agassi's progress was unchecked once he survived his opening service game, which saw four break points fall to the US Open champion.

That was tough. I had to just hang in there at the start, Marat was playing some really great shots

  Andre Agassi

The Russian twisted his ankle in the fifth game when Agassi wrong-footed him, and the American earned the crucial first break.

The ankle would prove troublesome for Safin who twisted it more heavily in the ninth game and trainer Bill Norris strapped it for him. But he was again broken as Agassi took the opening set.

The second set went with serve until the eighth game when Agassi claimed his third break of the match.

Victory came shortly after, achieved in a very comfortable 87 minutes.

"That was tough. I had to just hang in there at the start, Marat was playing some really great shots," said Agassi.

"But I established a work ethic out there, worked really hard and it paid off."