Ljubicic, Roddick qualify for Shanghai Masters Cup

World number four Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and American Andy Roddick booked their berths in the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai on Tuesday.

The pair, who are currently third and fourth in the ATP Race rankings, join the world's top two players, Swiss Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the elite eight-man Masters Cup slated for November 12-19 in Shanghai.

Ljubicic's qualification was confirmed when Spaniard Tommy Robredo, eighth in the Race, lost his first round match at the St. Petersburg Open, ATP revealed on its official website.

And Roddick booked his place shortly afterwards when Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, 10th in the Race, fell to Frenchman Arnaud Clement in Lyon tennis tournament.

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.

With less than two weeks remaining in the regular ATP season, Robredo and Baghdatis are two of the 10 players still 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.

Source: Xinhua