Kuerten's No 1 quest barred by Ivanisevic

Gustavo Kuerten, who hopes to finish the year as world No 1, has been drawn to face Goran Ivanisevic, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the round-robin stages of the Masters Cup in Sydney next week.

The Brazilian opens up against Ivanisevic next Tuesday, although the Croatian's appearance is in doubt because of an injured toe. If Ivanisevic pulls out, his place will be taken by Tommy Haas of Germany.

Kuerten, the ATP Champions Race leader, is only 48 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Lleyton Hewitt, with 150 points available for winning the Masters Cup undefeated.

Hewitt, the US Open champion, has been drawn in the other group with his fellow Australian Pat Rafter, Andre Agassi and Sebastien Grosjean. Hewitt will play the tournament's opening match on Monday against Grosjean, who only clinched his place in the tournament with victory at last week's Paris event.

Spain made a winning start to their Fed Cup campaign against Australia yesterday. Their former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez defeated Alicia Molik 2-6, 6-0, 7-5. Martinez was made to work harder than expected, however, and after a five-month injury lay-off, she looked rusty at the start.

After losing the first set to the world No 53, Martinez took the second in 16 minutes. Molik had chances to break in the seventh and 11th games of the final set. But it was Martinez who eventually triumphed.