Impressive Safin serves up Paris treat

Third seed Marat Safin gave the French crowd a taste of what they can expect in next month's Davis Cup final when he destroyed Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian in the Paris Masters second round on Wednesday.

Safin took just 62 minutes to beat the Argentine 6-3, 6-2 with a near faultless display of baseline power -- guaranteeing his place in the Masters Cup in Shanghai whatever the outcome of his third round match with Dutchman Sjeng Schalken on Thursday.

"I'll enjoy this week now," said the Russian who won the title here in 2000. "I did start to have some doubts about qualifying because everybody was so close, but now the pressure is off and I have nothing to lose."

Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero could also have sealed his place at the end-of-season showdown by beating Paradorn Srichaphan, but found the fast-rising Thai at his unstoppable best, losing 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour.

The 23-year-old from Bangkok, who began the year at 120 in the rankings but has moved up to 20th on the back of titles in Long Island in August and Stockholm last week, said: "After beating players like Hewitt (in Tokyo) and Agassi (Wimbledon) I know when I go on court I can beat anybody."

Switzerland's Roger Federer, Britain's Tim Henman and Spain's Carlos Moya enhanced their Masters Cup chances with convincing second-round wins, but Czech fifth seed Jiri Novak suffered a costly defeat.

Henman completed a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek, conqueror of Gustavo Kuerten on Monday, to set up a third-round meeting with Nicolas Escude.

Frenchman Escude delighted the packed Bercy stadium with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of French Open champion Albert Costa and afterwards said he was determined to avenge his defeat by Henman in Basel last week.

"I was rolling over him last week but he came back," said Escude. "If I can play like I did for one and a half sets against him last week it will be beautiful, but I have to keep going to the end."

Victory for Henman would push him above Novak in the Champions Race after the fifth seeded Czech bowed out 6-1, 6-3 to Romanian Andrei Pavel.

Eighth seed Federer took his career record against Xavier Malisse to 6-1 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory against the Belgian who was hampered by a back injury.

COMPOSURE REGAINED

Federer's only moment of concern came during a second-set dip when he surrendered a 3-0 lead, but he regained his composure to set up a third-round clash with ninth seed Tommy Haas.

German Haas recovered from losing the opening set against Slovakian qualifier Dominik Hrbaty to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

"I want to get my revenge on him (Haas) for the Australian Open this year," said Federer, referring to their last 16 clash which he lost in five sets.

"I thought I was very unlucky to lose to him there. It was a great opportunity for me then as I was playing great tennis."

Moya, who has won four titles this year but began the week just outside the qualification places for Shanghai, passed a potentially tricky test against American James Blake, using his devastating forehand to great effect in a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The Spaniard will now play defending champion Sebastien Grosjean for a place in the last eight after the Frenchman's tight 7-6, 7-5 victory over experienced Dane Kenneth Carlsen.

Grosjean, whose stunning victory in Paris last year propelled him into the Masters Cup in Sydney, saved two set points when serving at 4-5 in the second set, before breaking in the next game with some trademark passing shots.

Swede Thomas Johansson earlier reached the third round with a 7-6, 6-3 victory against Spain's Tommy Robredo, although his hopes of reaching the Masters Cup are hanging by the thinnest of threads.

To overtake Costa and qualify as the highest placed grand slam winner he must reach the final here -- a tough ask as he faces Andre Agassi in the third round.

Argentine Guillermo Canas, another player with a remote chance of appearing in Shanghai, ended Belgian Olivier Rochus's tournament with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 victory on court one.

Rochus, ranked 62nd in the world, only got into the main draw as a lucky loser when American Todd Martin withdrew injured and then won his first round match with Marcelo Rios by default when the Chilean injured his knee.

American Andy Roddick had to wait three days to get on court, but the 12th seed delighted his army of young fans with a hard-fought 7-6, 7-6 victory against Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the last match of the day.

"I haven't done very well in Paris this year so it was nice to get a win," the 20-year-old, who lost both his singles matches in the Davis Cup semi-final against France last month, said afterwards.