Sam Querrey's dreams of reaching the ATP Finals evaporated at the Paris Masters on Tuesday as he was comprehensively beaten by qualifier Filip Krajinovic.
Querrey had needed to go deep in the French capital to give himself a chance of climbing into the top eight places in the Race for London, but the 6-4 6-4 defeat ends his hopes.
His early exit against the Serbian boosts David Goffin's chances, with the Belgian, who faces Adrian Mannarino in the second round after the Frenchman beat David Ferrer 6-2 6-4, needing a semi-final place to qualify.
Pablo Carreno Busta could still make it, but he too suffered a shock second-round exit against the evergreen Nicolas Mahut – the Frenchman thrilling his home crowd in a 6-4 6-1 triumph.
Diego Schwartzman continued his sensational 2017 with a career-best 39th match victory this season coming against Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-4, keeping him in with an outside shot of qualifying for the ATP Finals.
Fifth seed Dominic Thiem got off to a winning start but made hard work of overcoming lucky loser Peter Gojowczyk.
The Austrian wasted three match points by failing to serve out the win from 40-0, but Gojowczyk was unable to complete the upset as Thiem dug in for a 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 triumph.
Kyle Edmund beat Evgeny Donskoy in the only other three-set match of the day, while Joao Sousa, Pablo Cuevas, Feliciano Lopez, Borna Coric and Fernando Verdasco also progressed.
