PARIS — Defending champion David Ferrer, Juan Martin del Potro and Stanislas Wawrinka moved into the third round of the Paris Masters Wednesday. Ferrer overcame Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-0, 2-6, 6-3, del Potro beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6 (3), and Wawrinka defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Rosol hit 19 winners to only 10 for Ferrer, but the third-seeded Spaniard made 18 fewer unforced errors. Del Potro capitalized on a backhand error from Cilic to break for 5-4 in the opening set. The fourth-seeded Argentine then took a 6-2 lead in the tiebreaker and clinched the victory on another backhand error from Cilic. Cilic was playing only his second match since the end of his four-month ban for a positive doping test, while del Potro entered the Paris Masters following titles at the Swiss Indoors and Japan Open. Wawrinka stayed in the race for one of the three remaining ATP Finals spots. In the final set, the seventh-seeded Swiss broke Lopez in the second game and did not face any break points. Roger Federer just needs to win his opening match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa later Wednesday to qualify for the ATP Finals for a 12th straight year. In other second-round matches, John Isner of the US outlasted Polish qualifier Michal Przysiezny 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3, Gilles Simon edged wild-card Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3) in an all-French meeting, and Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-3. A semifinalist two years ago, Isner broke for 3-1 in the last set when Przysiezny netted a routine volley. The American cracked 27 aces and 47 winners. Isner will next face second-seeded Novak Djokovic. French No. 1 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saw his hopes of reaching the season-ending World Tour Finals disappear Tuesday after being eliminated by Japan's Kei Nishikori. The former Australian Open finalist wasted two match points before double faulting in the final set tie-break to gift world No. 18 Nishikori a place in the last-16. Despite serving 18 aces, a lethargic Tsonga let the second round match slip from his grasp losing 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-7 (7/9). The 23-year-old, who earlier this year became the first Japanese player to reach the fourth round of the French Open since 1938, now faces his third successive Frenchman in Richard Gasquet for a place in the quarterfinals. Gasquet needed five match points earlier to beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 in the second round and that along with the elimination of Tsonga gave him a double boost in his bid to qualify for the World Tour finals in London. The win for Gasquet, who is clinging to the eighth and final place for London which is available as Andy Murray is injured, means Tsonga is now out of the picture while Canadian Milos Raonic can still oust the Frenchman with a strong run this week. In the final match of the day, world number two Novak Djokovic was taken to a tie-break in the first set before beating French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Hubert, ranked 189 in the world, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3. Spaniard Marcel Granollers breezed past Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4. — Agencies
