David Ferrer suffers early Shenzhen Open defeat

Shenzhen, China: Top seed David Ferrer was bundled out of the Shenzen Open at the second round stage by Serb Viktor Troicki on Thursday.

To compound the Spaniard’s misery, the 6-3, 6-4 defeat will not help his chances of reaching the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Ferrer, 32, is currently seventh in the race to qualify for the November 9 to 16 event in London. Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have already booked three of the eight spots for the singles.

Tomas Berdych is almost neck and neck with Ferrer, just 25 points behind in eighth spot before this week’s tournaments, but ninth-placed Milos Raonic is not far behind, with Grigor Dimitrov and Andy Murray on his heels.

World No. 174 Troicki fired 13 aces to canter to victory in just 66 minutes, his first over world No. 5 Ferrer in four matches.