Haas heads Shanghai hopefuls as qualifying tightens in Madrid

But with just a hair-thin 14 points - equal to a third-round victory - separating number eight Haas from provisional 14th Ivan Ljubicic, results from this week carry huge weight.

 Haas, who once ranked second in the world and ended his 2001 season in eighth, has never played in the eight-man wrapup event.

 "So far the season has been good," said Haas, who won his only title indoors at Memphis in February. "I like playing indoors.

 "I'm happy with my results (three semi-finals and a title) but I'm not overly satisfied obviously. But I'm feeling good on court. Hopefully it will remain that way for these next few weeks."

   The German turns 30 next spring and would like nothing better than to add participation in the prestige event to a resume which also includes three Australian Open semi-finals and an equal number of quarter-finals at the US Open.

 He put himself into position by reaching last weekend's Stockholm semi-finals, where he lost to eventual champion Ivo Karlovic.

 Ahead of Haas in the standings, competition will be fierce to wrap up several more qualifying spots during the high-tension penultimate Masters week of the season.

 Those already qualified for the Shanghai spectacular from November 11 include Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko, latest to clinch after winning Moscow at the weekend.

 While American Andy Roddick stands next in the queue on fifth, he is not playing this week after pulling out of Bangkok last month with a foot injury and missing Madrid with what was reported as a knee worry.

 In his place, healthy Spaniard David Ferrer, recent Tokyo titleholder, can leap-frog the inactive Roddick with a Madrid title and travel to China as fifth in the field.

 But Ferrer will start in the Madrid second round against Croatian Ljubicic, equally determined to start advancing from his long-odds provisional 14th place in the chase.

 The fallout prior to Shanghai can begin as early as the third round in the Spanish capital.

 Potential decisive clashes include Haas (eighth) against Fernando Gonzalez (seventh), James Blake (tenth) versus Richard Gasquet (11th) and number nine Tommy Robredo against 12th Tomas Berdych.