MADRID, Oct 17: Jiri Novak fought back from match-point down to beat Carlos Moya 6-7 6-4 7-5 in the third round of the Madrid Masters Thursday and press his claims for a place in the season-ending Masters Cup.

After two evenly matched sets Spaniard Moya, the number eight seed, served for the match at 5-3 only for his nerve to fail him as the determined Czech broke back to love.

Moya then missed a simple backhand for the match with Novak serving at 4-5 and paid the price as the number 11 seed roared back to break in the next and serve out for the win in two hours 17 minutes.

Novak went into the Madrid Masters 11th in the Champions Race and he is now closing in on the top seven and a place in the season-ending tournament in Shanghai, his position helped by second-round defeats for Marat Safin and Tim Henman.

Swede Thomas Johansson’s hopes of a qualification place took a knock when he was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Agustin Calleri, the Argentine qualifier who accounted for Safin on Tuesday.

Johansson, the Australian Open winner ranked 14th before Madrid, is trying to reach Shanghai by overtaking French Open champion Albert Costa, whose eighth place is in danger after he was forced to pull out of this event with a back injury.

Third round results (prefix number denotes seeding):

11-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) beat 8-Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 7-5 7-Sebastien Grosjean (France) beat Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 Agustin Calleri (Argentina) beat 15-Thomas Johansson (Sweden) 6-4 6-4 Fabrice Santoro (France) beat David Nalbandian (Argentina) 6-0 6-2 Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) beat Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 6-4 6-2—Reuters