Davydenko loses but reaches London

Nikolay Davydenko crashed out of the Paris Masters yesterday but still found himself assured of a place in the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Davydenko, who was seventh in the race to reach the eight-man, season-ending finals coming into Paris, lost 6-3 3-6 6-4 to Sweden's Robin Soderling in a third round match.

That briefly left him at the mercy of the four other players in with a chance of playing in London from November 22-29, but then Spain's Fernando Verdasco, who was holding on to the eighth and final slot, lost 3-6 6-3 6-4 to Marin Cilic of Croatia.

His defeat meant that Davydenko was assured of finishing the week no lower than eighth which stamped his ticket for London.

Verdasco though will have to sweat it out while keeping an eye on the progress of the three other potential finalists - Soderling, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who reached the last eight with a 6-2 6-3 win over French compatriot Gilles Simon, and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.

Davydenko, who was the losing finalist in last year's Tour Finals in Shanghai, looked to have turned the tide on Soderling after he drew level by winning the second set.

But in a tense deciding set, serves were on top until the 10th game when the Russian sixth seed hit a backhand wide to set up match point and then drifted another backhand long to send Soderling into the last eight.

The Swede will still have to at least reach the final at Bercy to have any chance of making it to London.

Next up for him, with a place in the semi-finals at stake, will be third seed Novak Djokovic, who cruised past French qualifier Arnaud Clement 6-2 6-2 in 75 minutes."

The 2008 Australian Open champion from Serbia, last year's Tour Finals winner, is seeking to lift back-to-back titles following his win in Basel last week where he beat Roger Federer in the final. He is also eager to win his first Masters Series title of the year having lost in four finals.

"Robin has a chance to qualify for the Masters Cup so he will give his best in the quarter-finals," Djokovic said.

"He is a big server and is having the best year of his career. I played him recently in Beijing and won so, hopefully, I can do the same here."

Murray out

Two matches in the same day proved to be the undoing of fourth seed Andy Murray who lost 1-6 6-3 6-4 to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

The Scot, who won a season-best sixth title in Valencia on Sunday was taken to 1:45 a.m the night before in defeating James Blake 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/4).

"I said last night it was going to be difficult to come back and feel 100 percent. It's obviously limited recovery after a long match," he said.

"But you still come out and you try to give it your best shot. Wasn't good enough."

Top seed Federer has already departed, dropping a shocker in three sets to French journeyman Julien Benneteau late on Wednesday for his earliest exit in a tournament this year.

Benneteau, who said his win over the world No.1 was the best moment of his career, failed to carry his form into yesterday losing 6-4 6-3 to compatriot Gael Monfils.