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BNP Paribas Masters—Paris, France
An eventful day at the Paris Indoors saw an instant change of fate for two Barclays ATP World Tour hopefuls.
First off, No. 8 ranked Fernando Verdasco ran into a Croatian buzz-saw Marin Cilic.
Cilic, who had been eliminated from London contention when Verdasco defeated Andreas Seppi in first round action, exacted revenge in the best way possible, defeating the Spaniard 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
After winning the first set on the strength of capturing the lone break of serve by either player, Verdasco's serving numbers dipped drastically in the second set, winning only 30 percent of his second serve points, compared with 50 percent in set one.
Cilic's powerful ground game began to grow with confidence, leading the lanky Croat to a routine second set win.
The third set displayed continued success for Cilic, who broke Verdasco in the ninth game, while never facing a break point opportunity.
With the win, Cilic advanced to his eighth quarterfinal of season and now awaits No. 15 seed Gael Monfils, who defeated Roger Federer's victor Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-3.
Verdasco's trip to London will remain in the bounds until the other remaining candidates in the draw for the Tour final are determined.
Verdasco remains in eighth place in the road to London with 3,300 points.
Monfils, who was eliminated from London contention last week in Valencia, Spain, defeated Benneteau in one hour and 56 minutes.
Monfils and Cilic have never met on the ATP World Tour.
Elsewhere, Robin Soderling and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga kept their hopes alive of qualifying for the season finale by dismissing Nikolay Davydenko and Gilles Simon respectively.
Soderling, who currently stands in the No. 9 position in the rankings, improved his career head-to-head with Davydenko to 6-3 lifetime.
The powerful Swede utilized 11 aces and two breaks of serve to oust his Russian opponent, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and two minutes.
Soderling will now need to advance to the finals of the event in order to qualify for London. He currently holding 3,010 overall points.
Davydenko, who must now await the results of other players' this week, stands in the No. 7 position.
Soderling will next face Novak Djokovic, who dismantled veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement, 6-2, 6-2 in third round action.
Djokovic's dominating performance consisted of eight aces, five breaks of serve and winning 80 percent of his first serve points.
The in-form Serb captured his Tour-leading 73rd match victory of the year, increasing his winning streak to seven matches after winning his fourth title of the season last week in Basel, Switzerland.
Djokovic, who qualified for the London finale in August, appears to be the man to beat for the remainder of the season.
The 2008 Masters Cup winner remains in the hunt for his 16th career title this week.
Djokovic will take a 4-0 head-to-head lead over Soderling in the pair's quarterfinal contest.
Defending champ Jo-Wilfried ousted hobbled countryman Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-3, in the pair's fourth career encounter.
Tsonga, who needs to win the event in order to gain entry into London, struck 13 aces while winning a sublime 90 percent of his total service points.
Simon, who defeated Ivan Ljubicic in a second round contest, continued to struggle with a right knee injury he aggravated against his Croatian opponent.
Playing for pride more than anything else, Simon took his defeat with a friendly smile after shaking hands with Tsonga at the net.
Simon ended his year with a respectable 45-29 record, which included a lone title victory in Bangkok, Thailand.
Simon will likely end the year ranked between No. 12-15, depending on who qualifies for the London finale. Because the Frenchman made the semifinals of the Masters Cup last year, he will lose the 400 points he gained for advancing to the final four.
Tsonga will now await the winner of the night match between Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo.
Nadal survived a horrid performance against Nicolas Almagro on Wednesday and will attempt to defeat Robredo for the sixth time in the pair's head-to-head meetings.
Nadal, who made the finals of the Paris Indoors in 2007 (l. Nalbandian), remains in the hunt for his seventh different Masters 1000 title of his career.
The Spaniard, who has won 15 total Masters titles in his career, recently added titles in Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Roma to his collection.
The lone upset of the day occurred when serve and volley specialist Radek Stepanek defeated No. 4 seed and recent Valencia champ Andy Murray, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
After being dismantled in the first set by the Scot, Stepanek began his second set charge by hitting flatter more angled groundstrokes.
Murray, who had played until 2am the night before against James Blake, appeared visibly fatigued from his late night encounter with his American opponent.
Squandering four match points in the final set, Stepanek held his nerve while serving out the match on his second chance.
The win for the Czech, who lost his opportunity of qualify for the London finale after losing to Djokovic in Basel last week, won his first meeting against Murray in four encounters.
The day's last contest will feature reigning US Open champ Juan Martin del Potro against the final candidate for London, Fernando Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, who also needs to win in Paris to qualify for London, takes a 3-1 career head-to-head lead over the Argentine.
Del Potro, who ended the career of Marat Safin on Wednesday, snapped a two-match losing streak in the process.
The towering Tandil native remains adamant on capturing his first ever Masters 1000 title.
Please check back on Friday for continuing daily coverage from the final Masters 1000 event of the season in Paris.
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