Andre Agassi will finish the year as world number one after his leading rivals were crushed or forced out of the Paris Open tournament.

Agassi, winner at this year's French Open and US Open, dispatched Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 6-4, 6-3 in the second round on Wednesday but the year-end top ranking was mainly helped by the poor showing of his leading rivals.

Pete Sampras, the finalist last year here, quit the competition for back problems following a hard-won win over Spaniard Francisco Clavet on Tuesday.

His withdrawal came only hours after defending champion Greg Rusedski was forced out of the tournament for injury. The Briton hinted he might call an end to his season.

Besides the withdrawals, Agassi was also helped as nine of the 16 seeds given a bye to the second round have lost their matches.

12th seed Alex Corretja fell at the first hurdle with a 7-5, 6- 3 loss to Marc Rosset of Switzerland, eighth seed Richard Krajicek lost to Mark Philippoussis, 7-5, 6-3 while 14th-seeded Carlos Moya was thrashed 6-2, 6-1 by American Jim Courier.

Ninth seed Marcelo Rios also suffered a 7-5, 6-2 loss to Michael Chang and late in the day Karol Kucera, the 16th seed, was eliminated by Dutchman Sjeng Schalken 6-3, 6-4.

Thomas Enqvist, last week's winner of the Eurocard Open, beat fourth seed Todd Martin in a final-set tie-break, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6(8-6).

But the top ranking became certain only after defending champion and second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov from Russia lost to Australia's rising star Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 at the second round on Wednesday, handing the American the first year-end No.1 ranking in his career.

Agassi lead with an unbeatable margin for Kafelnikov to make up with just one more tournament to be played before the ATP Tour world championship.

In other matches 13th seed Tommy Haas pounded Austria's Stefan Koubek 6-3, 6-2 and 10th-seeded Tim Henman scraped through 4-6, 7- 6 (9-7), 6-4 over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero.