Juan Carlos Ferrero nudged ahead of Carlos Moya in the Champions Race and moved closer to securing his position in the lucrative Masters Cup by beating his fellow Spaniard in Sunday's final of the Salem Open.

The pair had arrived in Hong Kong ranked equal fifth in the season's standings, with the top seven players in the Champions Race guaranteed a place in the draw of the Shanghai-hosted Masters Cup.

Ferrero won a tight match 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7/4) to climb to fourth with 428 points, ahead of Britain's Tim Henman (420) who falls to fifth.

Henman, not playing this week after his Davis Cup exertions last weekend, remains ahead of Moya - but only just.

Moya, a former French Open champion, is now down to sixth but only three points adrift of Henman.

The Masters Cup tournament takes place in November, at the end of the season, and can richly reward the eight entrants as its total prize fund is 3.7million US dollars (£2.37million).

The eighth place goes to the highest-ranked Grand Slam winner of the year outside the top seven which is currently rounded off by another Spaniard, Albert Costa. Top two Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi have already qualified, while third-placed Marat Safin still has some work to do.

Today Ferrero was looking to beat Moya in a final for the second time this year, following the Masters Series event at Monaco in April.

He successfully clinched his second title of the year, while Moya missed out on a fifth triumph.

"It was very important to win here," said Ferrero.

"Not only will it boost my confidence but now I can tell the Spanish people back home that we Spanish players can win on hard courts too.

"For long we have been regarded only as clay-court specialists but the fact that Carlos and I were in the final will disprove it."

Moya, 26, has returned to top form this season after some mixed form in recent years.

"I will have no regrets if I fail to qualify for Shanghai," he said.

"I have won four titles this year and today I gave it my best shot."