About 12 hours after being guaranteed the year-end No. 1 ranking, Roddick went out and lost to Rainer Schuettler 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) Thursday in round-robin action at the Tennis Masters Cup.

Andy Roddick reacts after losing a point against Rainer Schuettler, of Germany, during the third set of their Tennis Masters Cup match Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003 in Houston. Schuettler defeated Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3). [AP]

Then Roddick's postmatch news conference was interrupted by a bubbly bath courtesy of friend and fellow pro Mardy Fish.

"It's a very sweet day for me. I'm going to try to forget the fact that I didn't play well," Roddick said. "This was a culmination of the whole year. And I wasn't going to spoil that by having a bad attitude just because I didn't play well on one day."

Roddick is 0-3 in 2003 against the sixth-ranked Schuettler, who kept grinding away throughout the windy match.

"It's always something special if you win against No. 1," Schuettler said. "I don't think we both played our best tennis today."

Roddick's strength, his serve, let him down late, with six of his eight double-faults in the third set, including one to set up match point. He then sailed a backhand long to end it with his 49th unforced error.

That made Roddick's record in the round-robin portion 1-1. Schuettler is 2-0 and will make the semifinals regardless of how he fares in his last round-robin match.

Roddick faces No. 4 Guillermo Coria on Friday for a semifinal berth. Coria defeated No. 7 Carlos Moya 6-2, 6-3 Thursday, converting his sixth match point when the 1998 French Open champion put a forehand into the net.

At night, Andre Agassi played David Nalbandian for another spot in the semifinals.

Agassi's victory over No. 2 Juan Carlos Ferrero on Wednesday night dropped the Spaniard to 0-2, preventing him from advancing to the final four. And that assured Roddick of becoming the 13th man to close a season atop the ATP Tour computer rankings.

"It was kind of unusual that it happened on a Wednesday," said Roddick's coach, Brad Gilbert. "And it was like, 'OK, Andy, you have to go back to business on Thursday.' I think that if Ferrero would have still been in it, maybe he would have been a little more intense today because there would have been more of a sense of urgency."

Curiously, it was only the second occasion in 89 matches all season that Roddick dropped two tiebreakers. The other? A loss to Tim Henman in the Paris Masters on Nov. 1, the day after Roddick learned he would overtake Ferrero to get to No. 1 for the first time.

Nonetheless, the tour honored Roddick in an on-court ceremony after he faced Schuettler, presenting him with a crystal trophy marking his ascension.

"It's a pretty big accomplishment for me, something I never thought would happen or was possible," said Roddick, who beat Ferrero in the U.S. Open (news - web sites) final.

"To kind of just storm through this summer and take it in the latter part of the year — maybe I snuck up on some people," he added. "I'm ecstatic about it."

A few minutes later, Roddick was soaking wet. Fish, who lived with Roddick's family in Boca Raton, Fla., for a year when they were in high school, ran into the news conference and sprayed two bottles of champagne on his pal's head.

Roddick could have sipped some of the alcohol legally — but just barely. He turned 21 in August during the U.S. Open; only Lleyton Hewitt, at 20 in 2000, was younger when he reigned at No. 1.

And as recently as late May, Roddick didn't think this honor would come so quickly.

That's when he was surprised in the first round of the French Open by journeyman Sargis Sargsian. Within days, Roddick hired Gilbert, Agassi's former coach. Thanks in part to Gilbert's calming influence and scouting, Roddick went on a tear, winning five titles and nearly 90 percent of his matches.

"For all this to happen, it's just been a whirlwind. It's just been amazing for me," Roddick said. "I don't even know what to say about it. I mean, it's just been an amazing ride over the last couple of months."

And now?

Well, there are the immediate goals of winning a season-high seventh title this week and leading the tour in a record five of six serving categories (Pete Sampras' best was four of six).

Then, Roddick said, he wants to get away from it all, "kind of live in a little bit of a hole the next couple of weeks."

But then it's time to get back to work.

"It's about staying there now. The most important thing is to improve. In every sport, if you don't improve, the pack catches up to you," said Gilbert, the first coach to take two men to the year-end No. 1 spot.

"You don't say, 'OK, I have to be No. 1' or 'I have to win two Slams.' You say, 'I've got to improve.' And he's got to improve every area of his game."

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