Berdych Closes in on Ticket to London

Tomas Berdych took another step towards securing a place in the eight-man ATP season wrap-up as the Czech fifth seed reached the third round of the Paris Masters on Tuesday with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Fernando Verdasco.

The 2010 Wimbledon finalist still needs to gain a place in the quarter-finals at the Bercy arena to claim sixth place at the World Tour Finals which start November 20 in London.

Berdych will get the chance in a Thursday match against either American Alex Bogomolov or Serb Janko Tipsarevic.

The Czech had been declared part of the London field last weekend, but the ATP had to roll that announcement back after re-checking their calculations.

Berdych beat Spain's Verdasco for the ninth time in 13 meetings and has now won all seven of their hardcourt matches, including a 6-1, 6-0 rout last month in Beijing.

Berdych broke Verdasco five times in one and three-quarter hours to advance after a first-round bye.

Five of the eight places in London have already been filled by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer.