Nine players chase final two Masters Cup slots in Paris

Nine players are fighting this week for the last two slots at the end-of-season Masters Cup.

Andre Agassi became the sixth player at the weekend to make sure of his place in the eight-strong season's finale starting on Nov. 13 and only one of these six - Andy Roddick - is playing at the Paris Masters.

Agassi joins world number one Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin in the Shanghai field.

The final two spots as well as the alternate will be determined this week during the final tournament of the regular ATP season, which started yesterday.

Argentine Guillermo Coria and Russia's Nikolay Davydenko are the front-runners.

Coria needs to win only one match at the high-tech Bercy hall to qualify for Shanghai. Davydenko's task is a lot tougher. To qualify without relying on other results, the Russian must reach the final.

If he were to lose earlier Davydenko could be overtaken by one of the other seven players still in the chase.

Those players are Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, Argentines Gaston Gaudio, David Nalbandian and Mariano Puerta, Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, Spain's David Ferrer and Swede Thomas Johansson.

The self-proclaimed biggest indoor tournament in the world, the Paris event has been badly hit by withdrawals.

The only top-five player in the draw is Roddick, the number one seed, who won the Lyon Grand Prix on Sunday.

All 16 seeds have a bye past the first round and will not be in action before today.

Henin-Hardenne pulls out

French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne will not play in next week's season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles.

The Belgian pulled out of the Zurich Open last month with a hamstring injury. Henin has been dogged by illness and injury over the past two years.

The 23-year-old is ranked sixth in the Tour points standings. The top eight players will qualify for the event which starts on Nov.8.