Paris, Oct 31: Top seed and world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain crashed out of the Paris Masters here yesterdsay losing to the Czech Republic's Jiri Novak 7-5, 7-5 in the third round.
It was Novak's second career win over the French Open champion and it gave him a quarter-final clash against Morocco's Hicham Arazi who defeated eighth seed Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Ferrero, who pulled out of the Basel tournament last week because of injury, had already struggled in the second round here where he toiled to beat Nicolas Mahut of France.
His defeat, which came in his 83rd match of the season, will also cost him his position as world number one with closest rival Andy Roddick, the second seed here, taking over the top slot after beating Tommy Robredo of Spain later yesterday.
Meanwhile, Paradorn saw his hopes of making the Masters Cup in Houston crushed when he lost to qualifier Arazi. But he was hampered by a foot injury early in the second set and needed his foot and ankle bandaged by the physio.



The Thai had needed to win here this week to dislodge David Nalbandian from the eighth and final qualifying spot for the Masters Cup next month.



Nalbandian, who scratched from this event because of a wrist injury, will now take his place in Texas.


Bureau Report