World number four Ivan Ljubicic and US Open runner-up Andy
Roddick secured their places in the season-ending Masters Cup on
Tuesday.
The duo are third and fourth in the ATP Race and join the
world's top two players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, in the
eight-man field for the Nov. 12-19 tournament in Shanghai.
Ljubicic will be making his second consecutive appearance at the
event. The 27-year-old Croat has a 60-18 win-loss record this year
and has won titles in Chennai, Zagreb and Vienna.
Roddick was a semi-finalist in 2003 and 2004 when the Cup was in
Houston but skipped last year's event through injury.
He is on course to finish in the top five for a fourth
consecutive year, vaulting up the Race standings with an 18-2
record during the North American summer circuit after enlisting the
services of former world number one Jimmy Connors.
Ljubicic's qualification was confirmed when Spaniard Tommy
Robredo, eighth in the Race, lost his first round match at the St.
Petersburg Open.
Roddick booked his place after Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, 10th in
the Race, fell to Frenchman Arnaud Clement in Lyon.
With less than two weeks left in the regular season, Robredo and
Baghdatis are two of the 10 players vying for one of the remaining
four berths in the Shanghai draw.
Contenders still in action this week include David Nalbandian
(sixth), Fernando Gonzalez (ninth) and David Ferrer (14th) at the
Swiss Indoors and Nikolay Davydenko (fifth), Mario Ancic (11th),
and Tommy Haas (12th) at the St. Petersburg Open.
?
(Reuters October 25, 2006)