Second seed Guillermo Coria made an early exit from the Paris Masters when he lost 6-4 6-2 to Czech Tomas Berdych in the second round on Tuesday. Argentine Coria would have sealed a berth in the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai had he won.
Compatriot and fourth seed Mariano Puerta also crashed out, going down 6-3 7-6 (11-9) to Novak Djokovic.
Frenchman Arnaud Clement delighted the home crowd by defeating Nicolas Kiefer 6-4 1-6 7-6 (8-6) in a feisty match.
It was not all good news for the locals, however, as American Taylor Dent beat France's Sebastien Grosjean 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
Coria has been in poor form recently and made a string of unforced errors against Berdych.
He can still clinch one of the last two spots in the eight-strong Masters Cup but his fate now depends on how the other contenders fare in Paris.
In later matches, eighth seed Radek Stepanek beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 7-5 6-2, and Dmitry Tursunov edged out 15th seed Mario Ancic 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-3).
In-form Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, seeded sixth, had an impressive 6-3 6-4 win over James Blake.
MMIX
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