Ninth-seeded Swede Robin Soderling, who must reach the BNP Paribas Masters final to stand any chance of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals later this month, knocked out Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6(6) Wednesday for a place in the third round at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

Soderling won 72 per cent of service points and hit 12 aces to beat Karlovic for the first time since August 2006 in the US Open first round.  Karlovic, who failed to convert any of his eight break-point opportunities and hit 14 aces, dropped to a 23-23 match record on the season.

The 25-year-old Soderling added 90 South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings points for 2,920 points overall, 380 points behind No. 8-ranked Fernando Verdasco in the year-to-date rankings.  Soderling, who improved to 46-18 on the year, will next meet Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who needs to win one more match to qualify for the prestigious circuit climax at The O2 in London from 22-29 November.

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Third-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic reached the third round at the Palais Omnisports for the third time in five appearances, after battling past Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 32 minutes.   Monaco led 2-0 in the first set and 5-2 in the second set, but was clawed back both times.  The pair also met at 2005 Wimbledon and the 2007 US Open.

"I didn't feel that great on the court," admitted Djokovic.  "Probably a long week in Basel affected [me] physically.  But I got a victory, and that's what matters most.  I want to do well here in Bercy, because I [haven't] had a lot of success in the last couple of years.  I have a lot of support.  It's as pleasure playing in front of them."

Djokovic lifted his fourth ATP World Tour title of the year at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel (d. Federer) on Sunday and leads the ATP World Tour with a 72-18 match record on the season (47-10 on hard courts).

World No. 93 and French qualifier Arnaud Clement will challenge Djokovic in the third round after snapping a six-match losing streak against 16th seed Tommy Haas of Germany with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(8) win in two hours and 49 minutes.

Clement saved one match point at 6-7 in the third set tie-break and eventually triumphed after converting his third match point.  The pair first met at the 1998 Bank Austria TennisTrophy in Vienna. 

"I've been working [the past] two or three weeks, and I was able to improve my legs," said Clement.  "I think you can see it.  Also, I'm more confident.  This helps me to be faster.  If I compare this match with the way I played when I was 20 years old, I believe I have more endurance today, but I'm not as fast.  And also, it takes me more time to recuperate in between points.  But I've been doing a lot of cycling lately, and I think this helped me a lot to work on my endurance."

Clement, 31, improved to 14-19 on the year, while 30-year-old Haas dropped to a 31-17 season record, highlighted by one ATP World Tour title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle (d. Djokovic).