Category: Rankings

Milos Raonic on Defense

One of the things I enjoy about watching up-and-comers on the ATP tour is how fast they can climb the rankings.  With few points to defend, a semifinal showing at an ATP 250 can be worth several ranking places, and a young player can string together several weeks like that.

This time last year, Milos Raonic did that (and much more) in January and February.  He started the season with a ranking of 156.  By the time he got to Indian Wells, he was up to 37.  He amassed nearly 800 points in a six-week span starting in Melbourne qualifying and ending in Memphis.  That’s more than half of his current point total, even after taking the title yesterday in Chennai and returning to his career-high ranking of 25.

In other words, Milos has his work cut out for him if he’d like to stay in the top 30.  At last year’s Australian Open, he beat Michael Llodra and Dr. Mikhail Youzhny en route to the round of 16.  Making it that far will be easier this year, since he’ll be seeded, but he’s still likely to face a top-16 player in the third round.  In San Jose, he won his first title, claiming 250 points thanks mainly to his beating Fernando Verdasco on an indoor hard court.  The next week, he racked up another 300 points for reaching the final in Memphis, this time beating both Verdasco and Mardy Fish.

The main advantage Raonic has this year is his ranking.  He wasn’t seeded at a tour-level event until late March, at the Miami Masters.  He had to defeat seeded players in the second and third rounds in Melbourne, then in the first rounds of Johannesburg, San Jose, and Memphis.  In 2012, it should be much easier going in the early rounds.

At the very least, then, Raonic won’t fall too far.  If all he does is play up to his seeding, he’ll reach the third round in Melbourne, then the quarters or semis in San Jose and Memphis.  That won’t be enough to defend all of his points, but it will keep him on the fringes of the top 32 long enough to build his rankings at the tournaments he missed last year.  Let Milos loose on the North American hard court circuit, and it isn’t difficult to imagine him cracking the top ten.

WTA Hard Court Rankings, pre-US Open

According to my ranking algorithm, Serena Williams is best player headed into the 2011 US Open.  It isn’t even close. Keep in mind that my system is focused specifically on who can beat whom on hard courts, not on a nebulous sense of the “best, most consistent player.” Serena may not be likely to show up at any given tournament, but when she does, she wins.

Thanks to a solid grass-court season and her win in Montreal, Serena is well ahead of the pack.  Kim Clijsters still has a lock on the #2 spot, but she won’t be in New York.  Wozniacki, Azarenka, and Sharapova are very tightly packed in the next three spots, in that order.

Despite playing even less than her sister has, Venus Williams comes in at #14.  Fans of American tennis will find some promise here–my system favors Melanie Oudin (58), Vania King (75), and Sloane Stephens (81), while all are currently outside the WTA top 100.

Here is the full list.  Check back later this weekend for tournament predictions based on these rankings and the full draw.

RANK  PLAYER                        PTS  
1     Serena Williams              8504  
2     Kim Clijsters                6683  
3     Caroline Wozniacki           6307  
4     Victoria Azarenka            6178  
5     Maria Sharapova              6158  
6     Petra Kvitova                5846  
7     Vera Zvonareva               5698  
8     Samantha Stosur              4547  
9     Na Li                        4528  
10    Agnieszka Radwanska          4379  
11    Marion Bartoli               4152  
12    Andrea Petkovic              3862  
13    Dominika Cibulkova           3704  
14    Venus Williams               3589  
15    Sabine Lisicki               3409  
16    Shuai Peng                   2978  
17    Ana Ivanovic                 2918  
18    Daniela Hantuchova           2887  
19    Svetlana Kuznetsova          2841  
20    Jelena Jankovic              2737  

RANK  PLAYER                        PTS  
21    Alisa Kleybanova             2500  
22    Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova     2494  
23    Flavia Pennetta              2475  
24    Roberta Vinci                2253  
25    Yanina Wickmayer             2246  
26    Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez  2212  
27    Nadia Petrova                2209  
28    Francesca Schiavone          2139  
29    Shahar Peer                  2097  
30    Jie Zheng                    2084  
31    Julia Goerges                1812  
32    Lucie Safarova               1746  
33    Galina Voskoboeva            1735  
34    Kaia Kanepi                  1731  
35    Ekaterina Makarova           1727  
36    Maria Kirilenko              1718  
37    Tsvetana Pironkova           1597  
38    Elena Vesnina                1387  
39    Kateryna Bondarenko          1364  
40    Christina McHale             1318  

RANK  PLAYER                        PTS  
41    Petra Cetkovska              1295  
42    Gisela Dulko                 1279  
43    Iveta Benesova               1234  
44    Tamira Paszek                1227  
45    Klara Zakopalova             1195  
46    Dinara Safina                1189  
47    Bethanie Mattek-Sands        1146  
48    Aravane Rezai                1133  
49    Virginie Razzano             1111  
50    Anastasija Sevastova         1098  
51    Jarmila Gajdosova            1092  
52    Sara Errani                  1076  
53    Vera Dushevina               1063  
54    Petra Martic                 1052  
55    Alona Bondarenko              983  
56    Marina Erakovic               965  
57    Bojana Jovanovski             964  
58    Melanie Oudin                 947  
59    Anna Chakvetadze              928  
60    Magdalena Rybarikova          901  

RANK  PLAYER                        PTS  
61    Alize Cornet                  891  
62    Simona Halep                  885  
63    Timea Bacsinszky              863  
64    Polona Hercog                 823  
65    Greta Arn                     823  
66    Aleksandra Wozniak            816  
67    Ksenia Pervak                 810  
68    Romina Oprandi                800  
69    Kimiko Date-Krumm             780  
70    Alexandra Dulgheru            772  
71    Jelena Dokic                  767  
72    Elena Baltacha                754  
73    Barbora Zahlavova Strycova    753  
74    Agnes Szavay                  751  
75    Vania King                    709  
76    Ayumi Morita                  708  
77    Angelique Kerber              707  
78    Johanna Larsson               702  
79    Melinda Czink                 700  
80    Sofia Arvidsson               685  

RANK  PLAYER                        PTS  
81    Sloane Stephens               659  
82    Anabel Medina Garrigues       650  
83    Kirsten Flipkens              637  
84    Monica Niculescu              623  
85    Carla Suarez Navarro          618  
86    Alla Kudryavtseva             618  
87    Lucie Hradecka                607  
88    Yaroslava Shvedova            599  
89    Kristina Barrois              591  
90    Regina Kulikova               590  
91    Anastasia Rodionova           580  
92    Sorana Cirstea                577  
93    Vesna Dolonts                 576  
94    Eleni Daniilidou              563  
95    Urszula Radwanska             557  
96    Olga Govortsova               534  
97    Arantxa Rus                   523  
98    Anastasiya Yakimova           522  
99    Shuai Zhang                   517  
100   Kai-Chen Chang                512

Hard Court Singles Rankings: 22 August 2011

With the U.S. Open a mere seven days away (and qualifying starting tomorrow!), it’s time to update my hard-court singles rankings.  If you’re interested in some of the methodology underlying these rankings, start here.

Here’s the top 101.  For what might be the first time since I started publishing these, Delpo is knocked out of the top four.  Because my system takes into account the last two years, he could take a hit when the 2009 US Open comes off the books.  It’s not as major a shift as in the ATP rankings, because my system has already heavily discounted the 2009 Open because it was so long ago, but given how large a factor those wins play in Delpo’s ranking, it will make a difference.

Also interesting to see how my system reflects the mess that is 6 through 15.  Fish, appropriately, heads the group on hard courts, while Ferrer loses several spots compared to the ATP rankings.  (Remember, these numbers are hard-court specific.)  Melzer and Almagro find themselves way out of the running.

Note also what these numbers do with some younger players — Bernard Tomic is on the cusp of cracking the top 20, and Ryan Harrison is inside the top 50.

RANK  PLAYER                  POINTS  
1     Novak Djokovic            7509  
2     Rafael Nadal              4977  
3     Roger Federer             4154  
4     Andy Murray               3911  
5     Juan Martin del Potro     3207  
6     Mardy Fish                2709  
7     Jo-Wilfried Tsonga        2654  
8     Robin Soderling           2360  
9     Tomas Berdych             2034  
10    Stanislas Wawrinka        1907  
11    Gael Monfils              1842  
12    Marin Cilic               1790  
13    David Ferrer              1601  
14    Andy Roddick              1518  
15    Gilles Simon              1507  
16    Nikolay Davydenko         1422  
17    Marcos Baghdatis          1392  
18    Richard Gasquet           1339  
19    Fernando Verdasco         1321  
20    David Nalbandian          1279  

RANK  PLAYER                  POINTS  
21    Bernard Tomic             1279  
22    Milos Raonic              1267  
23    Ernests Gulbis            1256  
24    Janko Tipsarevic          1159  
25    Viktor Troicki            1143  
26    Mikhail Youzhny           1108  
27    Florian Mayer             1093  
28    Alexander Dolgopolov      1068  
29    Philipp Kohlschreiber     1061  
30    Jurgen Melzer             1045  
31    Samuel Querrey            1044  
32    Nicolas Almagro           1023  
33    Ivan Ljubicic             1011  
34    Kei Nishikori             1005  
35    John Isner                 982  
36    Ivan Dodig                 948  
37    Michael Llodra             921  
38    Feliciano Lopez            903  
39    Radek Stepanek             896  
40    Guillermo Garcia-Lopez     854  

RANK  PLAYER                  POINTS  
41    Kevin Anderson             751  
42    Jeremy Chardy              745  
43    Juan Monaco                745  
44    Dmitry Tursunov            740  
45    Philipp Petzschner         736  
46    Ryan Harrison              736  
47    Julien Benneteau           734  
48    Marcel Granollers          720  
49    Tommy Robredo              716  
50    Adrian Mannarino           709  
51    Robin Haase                664  
52    Alex Bogomolov             662  
53    Xavier Malisse             660  
54    Thomaz Bellucci            651  
55    Lleyton Hewitt             621  
56    Sergey Stakhovsky          613  
57    Ivo Karlovic               607  
58    Grigor Dimitrov            602  
59    Thiemo de Bakker           598  
60    Andrei Goloubev            596  

RANK  PLAYER                  POINTS  
61    Lukasz Kubot               592  
62    Olivier Rochus             586  
63    Donald Young               585  
64    Dudi Sela                  559  
65    Santiago Giraldo           554  
66    Mikhail Kukushkin          543  
67    Andreas Seppi              541  
68    Denis Istomin              541  
69    Igor Andreev               528  
70    Pablo Cuevas               521  
71    Fabio Fognini              512  
72    James Ward                 505  
73    Yen-Hsun Lu                500  
74    James Blake                488  
75    Richard Berankis           477  
76    Matthias Bachinger         474  
77    Albert Montanes            468  
78    Lukas Lacko                466  
79    Benjamin Becker            466  
80    Jarkko Nieminen            463  

RANK  PLAYER                  POINTS  
81    Ryan Sweeting              461  
82    Leonardo Mayer             458  
83    Somdev K. Dev Varman       454  
84    Jerzy Janowicz             444  
85    Daniel Brands              444  
86    Matt Ebden                 440  
87    Michael Zverev             437  
88    Tobias Kamke               429  
89    Evgueni Korolev            426  
90    Blaz Kavcic                421  
91    Michael Berrer             419  
92    Daniel Gimeno              416  
93    Vladimir Ignatik           416  
94    Edouard Roger-Vasselin     412  
95    Frank Dancevic             406  
96    Alejandro Falla            401  
97    Ilia Marchenko             399  
98    Gilles Muller              396  
99    Grega Zemlja               396  
100   Simone Bolelli             387  
101   Wayne Odesnik              386

Welcome To Your 30s, Roger Federer

This week, Roger Federer turned 30.  In some sports, that age can represent peak performance; in tennis, it is often a signal that the end is near.

I’m sure Roger wouldn’t appreciate being treated as an age-grouper, but viewing him that way gives us more evidence of his greatness.  Regardless of whether he returns to the top of the ATP rankings, it would seem that he’ll remain the #1 thirty-something for as long as he wants to keep playing.

Here is the current list of best 30-somethings, based on this Monday’s ATP rankings. The only achievement that exceeds Fed’s domination of the 30-and-over set is Ivan Ljubicic’s standing among 32-year-olds. [Edit: That is, if you ignore Radek Stepanek, who is older and higher-ranked.  Never mind…]

3    Roger Federer       SUI    8/8/81
18   Jurgen Melzer       AUT   5/22/81
22   Juan Ignacio Chela  ARG   8/30/79
27   Radek Stepanek      CZE  11/27/78
30   Nikolay Davydenko   RUS    6/2/81
31   Ivan Ljubicic       CRO   3/19/79
33   Michael Llodra      FRA   5/18/80
47   Albert Montanes     ESP  11/26/80
49   Xavier Malisse      BEL   7/19/80
50   Jarkko Nieminen     FIN   7/23/81
63   Potito Starace      ITA   7/14/81
64   Victor Hanescu      ROU   7/21/81
79   Olivier Rochus      BEL   1/18/81
85   Michael Berrer      GER    7/1/80
86   James Blake         USA  12/28/79
88   Eric Prodon         FRA   6/27/81
91   Ricardo Mello       BRA  12/21/80
98   Diego Junqueira     ARG  12/28/80
100  Michael Russell     USA    5/1/78
103  Marc Gicquel        FRA   3/30/77

Rik De Voest, Man on the Cusp

You don’t have to read much of this site to know that I am particularly interested in the second tier of pros.  Some of that is due to spending countless hours at the U.S. Open qualifying tournament; the rest may be attributable to a general tendency to root for the underdog.  So, I tend to be as familiar with guys in the 140s of the rankings as I am with the men in the 40s.

One of those men is South African Rik De Voest.  If you’ve followed the ATP for long, you’ve doubtless seen his name.  He’s a lock for a wild card at the Johannesburg event, he plays many events on the U.S. challenger circuits, and he occasionally qualifies for other top-level tourneys.  He’s a strong all-around player, though perhaps mentally weak–I’ve seen him play a handful of times, and while he’s rarely blown out, he’s prone to giving up the lead.

The impetus for this mini-post is my discovery that Rik De Voest has never cracked the singles top 100.  He broke into the top 200 almost nine years ago, has not fallen out of the top 300 in that time, and reached a peak of 110 in 2006.  He turned 31 last month, so while he currently sits at 130, moving into double-digits gets more difficult every day.

I suspect that De Voest’s record as a sub-top-100 player is very uncommon.  Each year, many players reach the top 100 with nothing more than a handful of solid showings at challenger events–two of the many current players to fit that mold are Steve Darcis (#95) and Matthias Bachinger (#93).  While the top 100 may be a mental hurdle, the difference between 110 (De Voest’s peak) and 99 is almost meaningless.  In the rankings right now, it’s 17 points–less than the difference between winning and losing in the quarterfinals of many challengers.

Right now, about 80 points stand between the South African and the top 100.  That’s a taller order, but still an achievable one for a player of De Voest’s caliber over the course of a few months.  Depending on which statistical oddity you prefer, you may or may not want to root for him.  If he reaches the top 100, he’ll be one of the oldest players ever to do so.  If he doesn’t, he may well end up with the record for most weeks inside the top 200 (or 150, or 250, or 300) without ascending to the slightly-more-rarefied first page of the ATP singles rankings.

Bernard Tomic and the ATP Top 100: In Perspective

With his quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon, Bernard Tomic will break into the ATP top 100 for the first time on Monday.  He’ll do so with style, jumping from #158 to approximately #70.  (He will be considerably higher in my rankings–before the tournament, I had him just inside the top 50.)

As I’ve written before, a player’s chances of reaching the top of the men’s game have a lot to do with how early he cracks the top 100.  If you’re going to be a top-tenner, odds are you’re flashing some measure of those skills as a teenager.  In fact, to quote myself:

In the last 30 years, only one #1-ranked player (Pat Rafter) hadn’t reached the top 100 as a teenager, and he made it into the top 100 when he was 20.  Almost every eventual top-10 player had broken into the top 100 by age 21.

In that sense, Tomic is well ahead of the curve.  He doesn’t turn 19 until October, making him five months younger than Ryan Harrison, another teenager soon to break into the top 100.  Reaching #70 at such a young age isn’t a guarantee of future success, but it strongly points in that direction.  Again from my earlier post: 11% of players who cracked the top 100 at age 18 went on to become #1, and more than half (61%) eventually reached the top ten.

Tomic’s “comps”

Let’s take a narrower look and examine the 20 players who broke into the top 100 at ages closest to Tomic’s current age of 18.7 years.  It’s an impressive list, including Andy Roddick and Ivan Lendl, along with another 11 top-tenners.  Of these players the only “busts” were Andreas Vinciguerra (peak ranking: 33), Richard Fromberg (peak: 24), and Evgeny Korolev, who may yet improve on his peak ranking of 46.

In this group of 20 players, the average peak ranking is 11, and the median peak ranking is 8.  The average number of weeks in the top 100 is 362 (roughly eight years) and the median number of weeks is 410 (more than nine years).  Even 410 slightly understates a reasonable projection, since a few of these players (Roddick, Gael Monfils, Tommy Robredo, and Mikhail Youzhny) are guaranteed to add to their totals.

What may be most impressive about Tomic’s ranking at such a young age is that he has accomplished it the hard way.  He’s gotten plenty of wild cards–including at the Australian Open, where he reached the third round–but he qualified at Wimbledon, and a substantial chunk of his ranking points come from the challenger level, where he has reached four semifinals in 2011 alone.  His only “cheap” points are from Indian Wells, where he was wildcarded in, then beat Rohan Bopanna in the first round.

Now, Tomic’s ranking ensures that wild cards won’t be an issue, except at a few Masters 1000 tournaments.  If history is any guide, he’ll be a regular feature in the top echelon of the tour for most of this decade.

WTA Hard Court Rankings, pre-Wimbledon

Watch out, ladies, this site isn’t just for the ATP anymore.

It was a bit of a struggle, but I was able to assemble a ranking and results database for women’s tennis (both WTA and ITF) going back several years.  That allowed me to apply my ranking algorithm to WTA players.  This is still a work in progress–I’ve had to borrow a few assumptions from my ATP research–but I think the results generally make a lot of sense.

For newcomers, here are a few of the key differences between my rankings and the official WTA rankings:

  • My system considers matches going back two years–not just one.  Incidentally, this helps us better evaluate the Williams sisters, just as it helps us with Juan Martin del Potro in the ATP numbers.
  • The more recent the tournament, the more it counts in the rankings.
  • Points are based almost entirely on the quality of opponents, not on the level of the event.  If you beat Vera Zvonereva, it’s worth the same number of points whether it’s at Indian Wells or in Brussels.  (There is a slight boost for grand slams, on the assumption that players plan their seasons to peak at the slams.)
  • Surface is considered.  For these hard/grass-court rankings, hard-court results are weighted more heavily than clay-court results.  For instance, Francesca Schiavone is #26 here, but #10 in the clay-court rankings.

Here is the HeavyTopspin.com WTA hard-court top 100:

RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
1     Kim Clijsters                  9286  
2     Caroline Wozniacki             7888  
3     Victoria Azarenka              7040  
4     Vera Zvonareva                 6222  
5     Na Li                          5167  
6     Serena Williams                5142  
7     Petra Kvitova                  4854  
8     Maria Sharapova                4596  
9     Svetlana Kuznetsova            3607  
10    Venus Williams                 3551  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
11    Andrea Petkovic                3514  
12    Shuai Peng                     3498  
13    Marion Bartoli                 3332  
14    Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova       3268  
15    Agnieszka Radwanska            3207  
16    Samantha Stosur                3137  
17    Ana Ivanovic                   3129  
18    Flavia Pennetta                3074  
19    Alisa Kleybanova               3005  
20    Dominika Cibulkova             2931  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
21    Jelena Jankovic                2693  
22    Daniela Hantuchova             2505  
23    Yanina Wickmayer               2452  
24    Shahar Peer                    2318  
25    Kaia Kanepi                    2252  
26    Francesca Schiavone            2229  
27    Ekaterina Makarova             2010  
28    Sabine Lisicki                 1997  
29    Julia Goerges                  1970  
30    Maria Kirilenko                1961  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
31    Lucie Safarova                 1913  
32    Elena Vesnina                  1912  
33    Gisela Dulko                   1835  
34    Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez    1764  
35    Nadia Petrova                  1717  
36    Virginie Razzano               1673  
37    Dinara Safina                  1626  
38    Jie Zheng                      1619  
39    Anastasija Sevastova           1484  
40    Klara Zakopalova               1450  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
41    Aravane Rezai                  1420  
42    Kateryna Bondarenko            1370  
43    Bethanie Mattek-Sands          1345  
44    Roberta Vinci                  1320  
45    Anna Chakvetadze               1294  
46    Alona Bondarenko               1277  
47    Jarmila Gajdosova              1263  
48    Melanie Oudin                  1247  
49    Vera Dushevina                 1168  
50    Iveta Benesova                 1166  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
51    Alize Cornet                   1157  
52    Sara Errani                    1102  
53    Magdalena Rybarikova           1048  
54    Timea Bacsinszky               1038  
55    Agnes Szavay                    991  
56    Tsvetana Pironkova              986  
57    Barbora Zahlavova Strycova      953  
58    Bojana Jovanovski               952  
59    Kimiko Date-Krumm               917  
60    Alexandra Dulgheru              905  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
61    Greta Arn                       891  
62    Simona Halep                    889  
63    Tamira Paszek                   868  
64    Vania King                      856  
65    Polona Hercog                   848  
66    Angelique Kerber                820  
67    Jelena Dokic                    818  
68    Christina McHale                800  
69    Elena Baltacha                  784  
70    Sorana Cirstea                  771  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
71    Carla Suarez Navarro            751  
72    Yaroslava Shvedova              749  
73    Kirsten Flipkens                741  
74    Lucie Hradecka                  738  
75    Sybille Bammer                  737  
76    Aleksandra Wozniak              728  
77    Johanna Larsson                 722  
78    Alla Kudryavtseva               716  
79    Regina Kulikova                 693  
80    Monica Niculescu                677  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
81    Petra Martic                    671  
82    Kristina Barrois                656  
83    Ayumi Morita                    654  
84    Urszula Radwanska               638  
85    Olga Govortsova                 635  
86    Sofia Arvidsson                 630  
87    Coco Vandeweghe                 602  
88    Anastasiya Yakimova             592  
89    Anabel Medina Garrigues         590  
90    Kai-Chen Chang                  570  
                                           
RANK  PLAYER                       POINTS  
91    Eleni Daniilidou                566  
92    Rebecca Marino                  564  
93    Anastasia Rodionova             560  
94    Melinda Czink                   550  
95    Arantxa Rus                     535  
96    Ksenia Pervak                   527  
97    Michaella Krajicek              522  
98    Vesna Dolonts                   512  
99    Tamarine Tanasugarn             508  
100   Alison Riske                    501

Hard Court Rankings, Post French-Open

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything from my ranking system.  If you’re new around here and don’t know what I’m talking about, you can read up on how my rankings are calculated here.  The short version is that they take into account results, giving you more points for beating good players than beating weaker players.  There are many other factors that go into it, and once the stew is stirred, these rankings do a better job of predicting match results than do the ATP rankings.

One odd thing about surface rankings is that they are most interesting when they are most unreliable.  Right now, we’re shifting gears from clay to grass, and no one has played a match on a hard court since Miami.  But because we’ve switched over, hard court results matter.  (Because there are so few grass-court events, I have to group hard and grass together.)

Without further ado, here is the top 40 through the French Open, rated for current hard-court ability level.

1   Novak Djokovic          6836  
2   Rafael Nadal            5090  
3   Roger Federer           4902  
4   Juan Martin del Potro   4207  
5   Andy Murray             3726  
6   Robin Soderling         2682  
7   Stanislas Wawrinka      2244  
8   Mardy Fish              2072  
9   Gael Monfils            1909  
10  Tomas Berdych           1862  
                                  
11  Andy Roddick            1858  
12  Marin Cilic             1826  
13  David Ferrer            1742  
14  Nikolay Davydenko       1721  
15  Marcos Baghdatis        1603  
16  Milos Raonic            1477  
17  Alexander Dolgopolov    1416  
18  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga      1393  
19  Richard Gasquet         1389  
20  Florian Mayer           1354  
                                  
21  Gilles Simon            1333  
22  Viktor Troicki          1226  
23  Fernando Verdasco       1192  
24  Kei Nishikori           1180  
25  Mikhail Youzhny         1156  
26  Jurgen Melzer           1116  
27  Samuel Querrey          1031  
28  Janko Tipsarevic        1015  
29  Ivan Ljubicic            993  
30  Guillermo Garcia-Lopez   983  
                                  
31  Juan Monaco              967  
32  Michael Llodra           914  
33  John Isner               907  
34  Philipp Kohlschreiber    890  
35  Jeremy Chardy            872  
36  Nicolas Almagro          852  
37  David Nalbandian         846  
38  Feliciano Lopez          784  
39  Radek Stepanek           759  
40  Lleyton Hewitt           753

(The points don’t mean anything concrete, though they do give you an idea of the differences between adjacent players.)

The biggest surprise in the top 10 is Stanislas Wawrinka, and of course, he’s made me look dumb by losing in his first match to British wild card James Ward.  Yikes.  That will probably knock him down a spot or three before next week’s rankings.  Seeing Lleyton Hewitt at the bottom of this list is a reminder that he’s only a year removed from some very good hard-court results, and if healthy, he could generate some upsets at Halle and Wimbledon.

Updated Clay Rankings and Roland Garros Qualifying Threats

Last week, I wrote up a piece for ESPN.com that is supposed to run today.  I’ll post a link as soon as it’s up.  The article uses my ranking system to order the top players on clay, and of course, between last week’s deadline and this week’s publication, the ranking changed.

Here are some gainers and losers in my system heading into the French:

  • Djokovic is #1.  Now that he’s beaten Nadal twice in a row, it isn’t even close.  In Rome, my system gave Rafa a slight edge; if they meet in the French Open final, it thinks Novak has a 58% chance of winning.  Oddly enough, that percentage is a little stronger on clay now than it is on hard courts, though of course Djokovic is favored on all surfaces.
  • Murray is at #6, but basically tied for #5 with Soderling.  Coming into the clay season, he was outside the top ten on the surface; a couple of good results and he’s moving up the list.  If anything, his ranking underrates him, as we saw in his match against Djokovic last week.
  • Richard Gasquet is #8.  He’s been going deep almost every week, and he has lost only to the best.  If I were a top-8 player, I wouldn’t want to see him in my quarter of the draw.
  • A trio of disappointment: Mikhail Youzhny, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Juan Monaco.  Three very different players, none of whom are posting any results to be proud of.  Dolgo, especially, should do better–this could have been his season to break through. They sit at #33, #37, and #41, respectively.
Here are a handful of players who do well in my ranking system and are fighting through Roland Garros qualifying this week:
  • #60 Thomas Schoorel — he’s been a beast on the European challenger circuit lately, and he could make trouble for players who have yet to face the big serving of this tall lefty.
  • #66 Ryan Harrison
  • #71 Ilya Marchenko
  • #73 Andrey Kuznetsov (he’ll play Marchenko in the second round)
  • #87 Horacio Zeballos — I’ve mostly given up hope on the Argentine breaking through, but you never know.
  • All between #90 and #100, all into the second round: Facundo Bagnis, Evgeny Donskoy, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, and Federico del Bonis.
As soon as the qualifiers are placed in the main draw, I’ll run a simulation for the entire tournament.