Tennis Abides

Week of April 29 through May 5

1.  Novak Djokovic – Novak is the number one player in the world, but he will face challenges to remain number one in 2012.

2. Rafael Nadal – A seventh consecutive Barcelona title have Nadal surging.  He is the greatest ever on clay.  No one has dominated a surface like he has.

3.  Roger Federer – Fed’s 2012 titles in Dubai, Rotterdam and Indian Wells have him ranked number three.

4.  Andy Murray -  David Ferrer nearly passed Murray.  Raonic is good and getting better, but that is a match Murray needed to win.

5.  David Ferrer – Near misses are hard to gauge.  Is Ferrer close to a big run or is he forever outside of the top four?

6. Juan Martin del Potro – Delpo has played well prior to the clay court swing, but I think some of his comeback momentum might slow on the soft courts of Europe.

7.  Nicolas Almagro – Almagro holds steady for now despite a loss to Raonic.

8.  Tomas Berdych – Berdych is still in my top eight.

9. Gilles Simon - A solid week in Monte Carlo followed by a title has Simon rising.  Change since last week – Not Ranked

10.  Milos Raonic – The big kid has won two titles in 2012, been runner-up at another and just logged two strong wins on clay before losing a close match to David Ferrer.  If Raoinic plays clay court tennis a la Isner (i.e. serve bombs to hold and take cuts at the slower bounces), he could be a factor in some big matches this year.  Change since last week – Not Ranked

Dropped Out – Juan Monaco and John Isner