Berdych closes in on London spot with Paris win

(Reuters) — Czech Tomas Berdych was just one win from securing a place in the season-ending ATP World Tour finals after he dismissed Spain's Fernando Verdasco 6-3 7-5 in the Paris Masters second round on Tuesday.

Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic looks at the ball as he serves to Japan's Kei Nishikori during their match at the Swiss Indoors ATP tennis tournament in Basel November 1, 2011. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegman

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The fifth-seeded Berdych, who will book his ticket for the November 20-27 event at the 02 in London if he reaches the quarter-finals at Bercy, will next face either 11th seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia or American Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Seven players are vying for one of the three remaining spots for the World Tour finals.
World number one Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, who has pulled out of the Bercy tournament, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer have already qualified.
After an early trade of service breaks, world number 23 Verdasco netted a forehand to hand Berdych a 5-3 lead in the opening set, wrapping it up by holding serve to love.
He broke in the third and seventh games of the second set but Verdasco put up some resistance to claw it back to 5-5.
Berdych broke again in the 11th game before wrapping it up on his sixth match point with a backhand winner.
Later on Tuesday, France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the sixth seed, will take on Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez as he also looks to snatch a spot for the World Tour finals.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Martyn Herman)