Tommy Robredo's hopes of reaching the season-ending Masters Cup suffered a huge blow when the Spaniard lost 6-4, 7-6 to France's Marc Gicquel in the first round of the Lyon tournament on Monday.
Second seed Robredo, who is ninth in the ATP Race standings, lost the decisive tie break 7-5 and bowed out on the second match point. Gicquel next meets either compatriot Arnaud Clement or German Benjamin Becker.
Earlier on Monday, German Tommy Haas, eighth in the ATP Race, pulled out of the tournament because of gastro-enteritis, handing Russia's Igor Andreev a place in the second round.
Haas has 329 points and leads Robredo by one point, with American James Blake a further point behind. Frenchman Richard Gasquet, 11th in the Race with 321 points, faces a qualifier in Lyon on Tuesday.
All candidates for Shanghai's Masters Cup will have a last chance to battle it out at next week's Paris Masters Series.
France had a bright day with Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga going through with victories over compatriot Edouard Roger-Vasselin and American Vince Spadea respectively.
