Davydenko stays alive at Paris Masters
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | 12:41 PM ET
The Associated Press
Nikolay Davydenko returns a shot in his second-round win over Benjamin Becker. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)Sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia moved closer to qualifying for next month's eight-man ATP World Tour Finals by beating Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-2, 6-1 Tuesday in the second round of the Paris Masters tennis tournament.
Davydenko, who broke his opponent five times and saved the four break points he faced, is one of five players who can still qualify for the season-ending event in London. Fernando Verdasco, Robin Soderling, Fernando Gonzalez and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are also in the running.
The 28-year-old Davydenko, who won the Paris Masters in 2006, needs to reach the semifinals to secure one of the two remaining spots.
Davydenko will next face either Soderling or Ivo Karlovic of Croatia.
The seventh-seeded Verdasco rallied to beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4. The 25-year-old Spaniard closed out the match on his first match point with a service winner and eliminated two contenders from the race to the season-ending finals — Radek Stepanek and Marin Cilic.
Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4 to advance to a second-round match against second-seeded Rafael Nadal.
French qualifier David Guez, 179th in the rankings, defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round.
Juan Monaco of Argentina broke Jeremy Chardy of France three times for a 7-6 (6), 7-5 victory.
