Carlos Moya beat No. 8 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 6-3 Saturday afternoon. (Erenst Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        MASON — If there's a way to beat a No. 1 player, it's to have been there and done that.

        Carlos Moya, a former world No. 1 who holds a 3-2 advantage in his series with top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, should be much more of a test today for Hewitt in the 4 p.m. Western & Southern Financial Group Masters championship than his No. 16 seeding would suggest.

        Moya, the lowest-ranked finalist here in 21 years, is 19-2 in the past five weeks and 2-0 against Hewitt since April.

        Granted, those two victories were on clay, but each was a straight-sets breeze. And Moya managed a split in their past two meetings on hard courts.

        “He plays better here than he does on clay,” Moya said. “But still, it's good to go to the court knowing the last two times you beat the guy.”

        Hewitt roared back to oust unseeded Fernando Gonzalez 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-2 Saturday night. Serving at 1-2 in the second set, Hewitt saved five break points, then played steady as Gonzalez slowly unraveled with 50 unforced errors.

        Moya, who reached No.1 in early 1999 but then struggled for nearly three years with a back injury, is ranked 17th but said he is playing better now than when he held the top ranking.

        He hasn't lost a set this week, beating No. 8 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 6-3 Saturday afternoon to become the first Spaniard in the title match since Manuel Orantes in 1973. No player from Spain has won this event.

        “He's obviously getting back to what we all knew he was capable of doing and what we saw of him when he was No.1,” Hewitt said of Moya.

        Moya had been 1-5 against Ferrero, losing their last five meetings.

        “I had a special feeling that today was going to be my day,” Moya said .

        Also today, James Blake and Todd Martin are in the doubles final, the first American doubles team to get this far in 10 years.

        They will meet Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi, who defeated Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek 7-5, 6-3.

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