Fernando Verdasco exit hands trio ATP final slots

ANDY Roddick, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer secured the final three places for the season-ending ATP finals in London after Spaniard Fernando Verdasco exited the Paris Masters.

Verdasco had to reach the final in the French capital to have a chance to qualify for the tournament featuring the world's leading eight players but lost 6-7 7-6 7-5 in the third round to local favourite Gael Monfils.

Roddick, Berdych and Ferrer, who lost 7-6 2-6 6-3 to Austrian Juergen Melzer, join Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling for the London showdown starting on 21 November.

"It's certainly an accomplishment every year. I think it's an honour to qualify once and then each time I think kind of you realise how tough it actually is," Roddick said.

Monfils, seeded 12, set up a Paris quarter-final clash with either third seed Murray or Croatian Marin Cilic - who were due to play in the late night match - after coming out on top of a two-hour-45-minute tussle with Verdasco, who squandered two match points on Monfils' serve when leading 5-4 in the decider, then lost his own serve to allow his opponent to serve out for the match.

American Roddick reached the last eight by beating Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 6-3 7-6.

Roddick got off to a flying start, opening a 2-0 lead and comfortably holding serve to bag the first set.

Gulbis proved more consistent in the second set but bowed out when he netted a routine forehand to lose the tiebreak 10-8 after saving three match points.

Roddick next faces either Swede Soderling, the fourth seed, or Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka.

Michael Llodra gave France a psychological lift ahead of next month's Davis Cup final with a surprise 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 win over defending champion and second seed Djokovic of Serbia to reach the quarter-finals.

Llodra, who lost only four of the 41 points played on his first serve, saved two set points in the first set tiebreaker before closing out the set with a winning backhand return.

He broke in the third game of the second set after Djokovic mishit a backhand into the net and doublefaulted before saving three consecutive break points at 3-2.

Llodra broke again for a 5-2 lead and sealed his win on his first match point with a brilliant stretched forehand volley.

"I need to go further, I'm realising that I can go beyond the quarter-finals at one-week tournaments," Llodra said.