The night before one of the biggest battles in their careers, Carlos Moya and Juan Carlos Ferrero broke bread.

        The Spaniards dined at Carrabba's Italian Grill in Mason on Friday, then talked Saturday before facing off in a Western & Southern Financial Group Masters semifinal.

        “It's not easy,” Moya said. “But once you get to the court, you forget about everything.”

        Moya and Ferrero are friends, and Moya said they didn't talk at dinner Friday about the match they'd be playing, which Moya won.

        “We talk a little about cars when we're together,” Moya said. “We love cars -- and the speed, you know.”

        Moya and Ferrero also practiced together Thursday and had dined together once earlier in the week.

        SPORTSMAN: Todd Martin showed Saturday why he has long been lauded for his gracious play.

        Early in the second set, opponent Martin Damm hit long, but Martin informed the chair umpire that the ball had tipped his racket and that the point was Damm's. Damm and Cyril Suk went on to break the serve of Martin's partner, James Blake. Martin and Blake won the match.

        “No one would have known except me,” Martin said of the call. “But look at golfers. If they make an infraction, they're supposed to call it on themselves.

        “That's the way I've been taught to play, and I've played that way all my life.”

        Martin said he had called a similar point against himself in a singles match earlier in the week.

        MISSION POSSIBLE: Michael Chang said this week that he planned to play until the end of 2003, though that was a tentative retirement date. As for his after-tennis plans, the two-time Cincinnati champion said on masters-series.com that he plans to do missionary work:

        “I have a passion for young people,” he said. “I feel like I am in a position to impact them and touch their lives, maybe particularly the Asia-Pacific Rim.

        “I will be much more involved with our family foundation, with our kids and different programs.”

        FLYOVER: An Air Force pilot who flew the first transport of al-Qaida detainees from the Middle East to Cuba will execute a flyover with a C-141 Starlifter before today's championship singles match.

        Lt. Col. Philip Pierce, 48, has been in the Air Force 26 years. He said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks especially affected him because Leroy Homer, a pilot who formerly served in Pierce's unit, was first officer that day on United Flight 93, the hijacked airliner that went down in Pennsylvania.

        “The bad guys hit home in our unit,” Pierce said. “So it was really fitting that our unit got to fly some of those guys to their just reward in honor of (Homer).”

        ———

        Dave Schutte contributed to this report.

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