PARIS (AFP) -- The airtight race for one of the two remaining positions for next weekend's start of the Masters Cup lost a contender as Tommy Robredo was knocked out of contention with a Paris Masters loss on Friday.

A 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal win by Shanghai hopeful Marcos Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open finalist who learned his tennis in Paris, put an end to the dream of the Spaniard.
At the start of play on Friday, five men were in the chase for two remaining spots at the season-ending event in Shanghai. There are now four.
Two Spaniards have already booked into the field: Rafael Nadal and first-timer David Ferrer.
Robredo stood provisional eighth in the points chase for the eight-man conclusion, but will stay on 353 points.
The winner of that match will pass Robredo, leaving the Spaniard out in the cold for China.
Baghdatis has now beaten Robredo twice after winning their match at the 2005 Australian Open, a year before the Cypriot made the final against Roger Federer.
Federer has shrugged off a double dose of David Nalbandian and will head to Shanghai ready to do battle at another yearend wrap-up.
The Swiss was quick to put his second straight loss to the beefy Argentine out of mind -- he blamed a notoriously slow indoor court as well as his own lack of top form -- after going out in straight sets in the Paris third round.
That setback followed three weeks on from a defeat against the reviving Argentine in the final of the Madrid Masters.
But with his eye always on the big picture and his growing place in the sport, the steady Swiss cannot be frayed by one bad match.
""I was originally going to fly (to China) on Monday, I don't know if I'm going to go earlier than that,"" he said less than an hour after going out at the Bercy arena on Thursday night.
""I'd like to get there early and get over the jetlag and get used to the surface over there and hopefully finish well over there.""
If precedent holds, that wish would be a safe bet, with the Swiss winning three of the last four editions of the eight-man season-ending spectacular.