China Open winner Baghdatis needs to struggle en route to Shanghai Masters

China Open winner Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus faces more struggle en route to the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai after stunning setback at the on-going Lyon indoor Open on Tuesday.

The Cypriot sensation, currnetly 10th on 372 points in the ATP Race, lost to Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the opening round of the Lyon tennis tournament.

The disappointing defeat means Baghdatis needs a big result at the Paris Masters next week to stand a chance of going to the November 12-19 Shanghai Masters finals.

World number four Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and U.S. Open runner-up Andy Roddick has been confirmed the same day to join the world top two players, Swiss Roger Federer and Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the elite eight-man Shanghai campaign.

Now only four berths out of the eight are up for grab in less than two weeks of the regular ATP season. This week three key tournaments are being held simultaneously in Basel, St. Petersburg and Lyon, with the Paris Masters to follow in the week of October 30 as the last competition of the regular season.

Baghdatis is among the 10 players still vying for the berths in the Shanghai draw. Contenders in action this week include David Nalbandian (sixth in ATP Race), 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