Contenders edging closer

Davydenko: Confident

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Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco have both moved closer to securing the final two places up for grabs at the ATP World Tour Finals after winning their second-round matches at the Paris Masters.

Russian Davydenko, who needs to reach at least the semi-finals to book his place in the season's finale, scored a straight sets 6-2 6-1 victory over Benjamin Becker of Germany.

Verdasco, meanwhile, who will guarantee his appearance if he wins in Paris but who could also qualify earlier depending on how other contenders fare, had a tougher match but eventually beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-7 6-4 6-4.

The Spaniard's win did however mean that Czech Radek Stepanek and Croatia's Marin Cilic dropped out of the race, leaving just five players capable of reaching the London event, which features the world's top eight players.

With Davydenko and Verdasco first in line, the other three are Sweden's Robin Soderling, Chile's Fernando Gonzalez and France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

No ill-effects

Tsonga, the defending champion in Paris, was an early casualty in Valencia last week owing to an injured wrist but showed no ill-effects in his own second-round match on Tuesday, the world number nine beating Spain's Albert Montanes 6-1 7-5.

The eighth seed, who had a first-round bye like all seeded players, will next face compatriot Gilles Simon after he overcame a knee injury to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 3-6 7-6 in the evening's final match.

Davydenko, who won in Paris in 2006 and is seeded sixth this year, will now play either Soderling or the giant Croat Ivo Karlovic.

"Every year it's the same, whether I'm in (the World Tour Finals) or not depends on how I play in Paris, and I'm always in," the world number seven confidently predicted.

World number eight Verdasco, who next faces either Cilic or Poland's Lukasz Kubot, said: "Making the World Tour finals is a big motivation. I know if I win all my matches, I'll qualify, whatever the others do, so that's my goal."

All the world's top 10 players except the injured Andy Roddick are in Paris for the last tournament of the regular season.

World numbers one and two, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, play their first matches on Wednesday against France's Julien Benneteau and Spain's Nicolas Almagro respectively.

Benneteau saw off Germany's Philipp Petzschner 4-6 7-5 6-3 while Almagro beat Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli 6-2 6-4.

In other first-round action, French qualifier David Guez surprisingly beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3 6-4, while Juan Monaco set up a second-round clash against Novak Djokovic after beating Jeremy Chardy 7-6 7-5.