Blake loses to Ljubicic at Paris Masters

PARIS - James Blake lost to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-3, 6-4 Tuesday in the second round of the Paris Masters.

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Blake missed two chances to break when Ljubicic served for the match at 5-4 and 15-40. Ljubicic rallied and ended the match with an ace.

"His serve obviously gives him a lot of confidence," Blake said. "I think I had about five chances to break in the match and didn't get near any of them. It's frustrating to deal with because it makes you feel under pressure when you serve."

Meanwhile, Tomas Berdych upset second-seeded Guillermo Coria 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round.

Coria of Argentina needed to win to claim a spot in the Masters Cup in Shanghai, but looked sluggish against the 50th-ranked Berdych of the Czech Republic. Coria's qualification for the Masters Cup - featuring the top eight players in the ATP standings - depends on other results and eventual withdrawals.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi already have qualified for the tournament Nov. 13-20. But Federer, Nadal and Safin are either injured or recovering from injuries.

A finalist at Bastad and a semifinalist at Washington this season, the 20-year-old Berdych will play either Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain or Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the next round. Wawrinka beat wild card Florent Serra of France 6-3, 6-4, and Ferrero had a bye.

Qualifier Novak Djokovic of Serbia-Montenegro upset fourth-seeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina, the French Open runner-up, 6-3, 7-6 (9).

The French sports daily L'Equipe reported last month that Puerta tested positive for the banned stimulant etilefrine following his loss to Nadal in the French final. Puerta, who previously served a nine-month suspension after testing positive for clenbuterol in February 2003, has denied the accusation.

"I wasn't nervous about coming here to play in France," Puerta said. "When I stepped out on court, I felt the fans were supporting me."

Third-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia eased into the third round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over 1998 Paris Masters champion Greg Rusedski of Britain. Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic downed Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 6-2.

In a first-round match, Fernando Verdasco of Spain struggled before beating Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-5. Verdasco next plays Robby Ginepri of the United States.

Arnaud Clement of France defeated Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (6); Max Mirnyi of Belarus took Nicolas Massu of Chile 6-2, 6-3, and Taylor Dent of the United States downed Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 7-6 (4) in other first-round matches.

Dent joked that the main draw has been cruel to him. He faces top-seeded Roddick on Wednesday.

"He's going to cruise through a lot of service games because he's got one of the best serves in the world, but sooner or later I'll get the chance to break," Dent said.