Davydenko trounces Becker in Paris
Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and Spain’s Fernando Verdasco moved closer to spots at the World Tour Finals in London with contrasting second-round wins at the Paris Masters.
World number seven Davydenko, who would make sure of entering the November 22-29 season finale with a semi-final appearance here, took only 78 minutes to brush aside German Benjamin Becker 6-2 6-1.
Verdasco, the world number eight, who will a book a trip to London if he wins the title but could qualify earlier depending on how other contenders fare, needed over two hours to move past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4.
The Spaniard’s win meant Czech Radek Stepanek and Croatia’s Marin Cilic dropped out of the race, leaving just five players fighting for the two remaining tickets to the London event featuring the world’s top eight players, with Davydenko and Verdasco first in line.
Swede Robin Soderling, Chilean Fernando Gonzalez and France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the defending champion in Paris, are the other three but stand only an outside chance.
Davydenko, 28, who won in Paris in 2006 and is seeded sixth this year, will now meet Soderling or Croatia’s 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,” Davydenko said.
Seventh seed Verdasco, 25, next faces Cilic or Poland’s Lukasz Kubot.
All the world’s top 10 players except the injured Andy Roddick are in the French capital for the last tournament of the regular season.
World number one Roger Federer and number two Rafael Nadal will get started on Wednesday, against Frenchman Julien Benneteau and Spaniard Nicolas Almagro respectively.
Spaniard Nicolas Almagro set up a second round clash with compatriot and world number two Rafael Nadal when he beat Marco Chiudinelli, accepted into the tournament on a special exemption as his ranking was not high enough for direct entry.
Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka suffered a disappointing end to his season, being comfortably beaten 6-3 6-4 by French qualifier David Guez.
Guez was joined in the second round by another French qualifier, veteran Arnaud Clement, who dismissed Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-1 in just 51 minutes, while compatriot Julien Benneteau also reached the second round with a battling 4-6 7-5 6-3 win over Philipp Petzschner of Germany.
But Jeremy Chardy could not complete a quartet of French victories as he was beaten 7-6(6) 7-5 in two tight sets by Argentina’s Juan Monaco.
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