PARIS (AP) Tomas Berdych is just one win away from securing a berth in the ATP World Tour Finals after edging Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-3, 7-5 Tuesday in the second round of the Paris Masters.
The 2005 Paris champion won five straight games in the first set to rally from a 3-1 deficit, hitting 12 winners to only three for Verdasco.
Berdych broke the Spaniard twice for a 5-2 lead in the second set but wasted four match points to let Verdasco tie at 5-5. But the fifth-seeded Czech broke Verdasco again with a forehand pass before clinching victory with a crosscourt backhand winner.
Meanwhile, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine won their first-round matches.
Lopez beat Michael Llodra of France 7-6 (7), 6-3, Dodig rallied past Fabio Fognini of Italy 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, and Stakhovsky defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 6-3.
Dodig will play top-seeded Novak Djokovic.
Lopez saved four set points in the tiebreaker before taking to a 4-0 lead in the second set and landing an ace to clinch victory.
The Spanish lefty will play eighth-seeded Gael Monfils of France.
Nishikori struggled after stunning Djokovic last weekend to reach the final of the Swiss Indoors in Basel, where he lost to Roger Federer.
He could only convert two of 14 break chances against Stakhovsky, who will face Viktor Troicki of Serbia.