When a player reaches the Masters Cup, he has proved since Jan. 1 that he is one of the best in the world. He can win titles, he can win major championships and he can beat the best in the world.

Masters Cup round-robin groups
Red Group	Blue Group
A. Roddick	J.C. Ferrero
G. Coria	R. Federer
R. Schuettler	A. Agassi
C. Moya	D. Nalbandian

So, if there is such a thing as getting to the Masters Cup and having a good draw -- which is a debatable in such a field -- Andy Roddick has it.

With the No. 1 ranking on the line, which will come down to how well Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero play, Roddick could not have hand-picked a better group to be in. The red group all-around has fewer titles in 2003 and fewer Grand Slam titles over the course of their careers.

Roddick has got to feel pretty happy having Guillermo Coria in his group. Coria is more one-dimensional than anyone in the field. Coria's never proved that he can really succeed on surfaces other than clay. Rainer Schuettler has had one Grand Slam final appearance mostly because Roddick had a wrist injury in their Aussie Open semifinal. Whereas Carlos Moya is flat out a baller. You have to have so much respect for Moya's game. He has the potential to go 3-0 in the red group. He's proved that he can win on clay with his French Open title in 1998, and he's proved he can play on hard courts.

A few days ago we mentioned potential for a spoiler, in the blue group that could be David Nalbandian and the red group, it'll be Moya. Those two players are going to have a big impact on who finishes No. 1.

Three of this year's four Grand Slam champions along with last year's Wimbledon finalist comprise the blue group. On the outside, it looks like Nalbandian would be the odd man out when you put his record up against Agassi, Federer and Ferrero, but expect Nalbandian to sneak out a win somewhere against one of these three. Nalbandian came within a match point, against Roddick, of reaching the U.S. Open final.

With this Masters Cup being in America, and this possibly being one of Agassi's last two appearances in the season-ending tournament, Agassi is going to be inspired in Houston. He's going to be even more inspired because only once in his career has he ever won the Masters Cup.

For Juan Carlos Ferrero to finish No. 1, he will literally have to play the best tennis of his life. He does have winning records over both Federer and Agassi, but he lost to Nalbandian the only time they played. To be No. 1, he's going to have to go undefeated at the Masters Cup, but it might be impossible to do that even within his own group.

MaliVai Washington, a tennis analyst for ESPN, reached the 1996 Wimbledon final.