Fifth seeded David Ferrer escaped a threat from Slovakian Martin Klizan at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Spaniard who has yet to win a major tournament in his career came back from behind to win a three set clash against Klizan 4-6 7(7)-6-4 6-4.

Klizan, 25, defeated Rafael Nadal last week in his return to court at the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing.

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His next opponent will be the winner of the matchup against 11^th seeded Andy Murray and Jerzy Janowicz of Poland.

Ferrer has only won one ATP event this year the Copa Claro in Buenos Aires last February.

He had a string of early exits after a quarterfinals appearance at the French Open where he lost to eventual champion Nadal.

He lost to an unseeded player, Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, at the second round of the Wimbledon Championships and a third round loss at the U.S. Open against Gilles Simon of France.

The World No. 5 Ferrer continued to pummel in all of his appearances in Asia, losing in his opening matchup at the Shenzhen Open against Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki where he was top seeded and a disappointing first round loss to Marcel Granollers in last week's Japan Open.

The 2013 French Open finalist is currently 10^th in the eight-man short list of contenders for the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals 65 points behind Britain's No. 1 Andy Murray and 95 points ahead of Grigor Dimitrov.

Only three players are already assured of a spot in London, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer and French Open titlist Nadal.

Ferrer has been included in the season-ending event since 2010. With a month left, three Tour 250s, two Tour 500s and one Masters 1000 tournament left, the Spaniard may be looking at its first absence in the prestigious event if he doesn't perform well in Shanghai.

TagsDavid Ferrer, rafael nadal, andy murray, Grigor Dimitrov