February 14th Rankings

A couple of top 10 changes, but the most notable one came at #4, where Robin Soderling, Rotterdam winner, leaped past Andy Murray, who lost in the first round.

Winners:
Costa do Sauipe
#1 Nicolas Almagro ESP (17)
1st round Bye
2nd round Joao Souza BRA (214) | 6-2 6-2
Quarters Rui Machado POR (97) | 6-2 6-4
Semis #5 Juan Ignacio Chela ARG (37) | 1-6 6-2 6-4
Final #4 Alexandr Dolgopolov UKR (30) | 6-3 7-6(3)
Average Opponent Rank 94.5

Rotterdam
#1 Robin Soderling SWE (4)
1st round Robin Haase NED (45) | 6-3 6-2
2nd round Philipp Kohlschreiber GER (26) | 6-3 5-7 7-6(7)
Quarters #6 Mikhail Youzhny RUS (16) | 6-4 7-6(5)
Semis Viktor Troicki SRB (18) | 7-5 6-4
Final #8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA (13) | 6-3 3-6 6-3
Average Opponent 23.6

San Jose
Milos Raonic CAN (86)
1st round #4 Xavier Malisse BEL (47) | 6-3 6-4
2nd round James Blake USA (71) | 6-2 7-6(4)
Quarters Richard Berankis LTU (53) | 6-4 7-6(2)
Semis #2 Gael Monfils FRA (12) | Walkover
Final #1 Fernando Verdasco ESP (15) | 7-6(6) 7-6(5)
Average Opponent 46.5


Almagro had a strong week as the #1 seed in Brazil, getting two good wins on the weekend, over Chela and the young talent Dolgopolov. Still, this was a fairly weak 28-field event, and so Almagro won't get a huge benifit from winning it.

Robin Soderling secured the #4 ranking both in my rankings and the ATP's with his win in Rotterdam. He needed to play a tight third set TB with Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round, before getting three top 20 wins, over Youzhny, Troicki and Tsonga.

Milos Raonic, the young Canadian, continued his spectacular start to 2011, winning his first career title in San Jose. He beat some experienced hands in Malisse and Blake, along with another prospect in Berankis, and while he was fortunate to get a walkover against Monfils, he was very impressive in beating Verdasco in the final, including winning the first tiebreak from 2-6 down.

Challengers:
Bergamo: #1 Andreas Seppi ITA (54) d. #4 Gilles Muller LUX (93)
Caloundra: #5 Grega Zemlja SLO (153) d. #7 Bernard Tomic AUS (109)
Quimper: #8 David Guez FRA (198) d. Kenny De Scheeper FRA (292)

Futures:
Colombia F2: Gastao Elias POR (396)
France F3: Maxime Authom BEL (306)
Panama F1: Victor Estrella DOM (290)
Spain F5: Pablo Carreno-Busta ESP (284)
Turkey F4: Michael Linzer AUT (392)


Riser of the Week (top 100):
Milos Raonic CAN (86), Up 15
The San Jose champion moved into the top 100, completing a meteoric rise of almost a hundred places in just a single month. He earned his second top 10 win of the year in the final against Verdasco, and looks like a player to watch over the early hardcourt season.

Riser of the Week (other):
David Guez FRA (198), Up 34
Guez had a bit of a statistical oddity in his win at the Quimper challenger, in that his five match wins all came against fellow Frenchmen. He had some solid victories, beating Marc Gicquel (206) and Olivier Patience (163) along the way.

Dropper of the Week (top 100):
Sam Querrey USA (32), Down 4
Querrey made the semifinals in San Jose last year, losing to Andy Roddick (10), and while he didn't have any great wins, it was better than his showing last year, when he lost in straight sets to Lukas Lacko (87).

Dropper of the Week:
Karol Beck SVK (133), Down 24
The Slovak was on a great run at this time last year, as he was in the midst of a 14-match winning streak that including winning the Bergamo challenger. This week, he returned to Bergamo, but lost in straight sets to Jurgen Zopp (165) in the first round.


1 (1). Rafael Nadal ESP - 837.0
Last week: None

2 (2). Roger Federer SUI - 821.5
Last week: None

3 (3). Novak Djokovic SRB - 816.7
Last week: None

4 (5). Robin Soderling SWE - 799.3
Last week: Rotterdam W

5 (4). Andy Murray GBR - 796.7
Last week: Rotterdam R32 (l. Baghdatis)

6 (6). David Ferrer ESP - 792.0
Last week: Rotterdam R32 (l. Nieminen)

7 (7). Stanislas Wawrinka SUI - 786.6
Last week: None

8 (8). David Nalbandian ARG - 782.9
Last week: None

9 (10). Tomas Berdych CZE - 781.9
Last week: Rotterdam QF (w/o v. Tsonga)

10 (9). Andy Roddick USA - 779.6
Last week: None

11 (11). Jurgen Melzer AUT - 774.9
Last week: Rotterdam R16 (l. Cilic)

12 (13). Gael Monfils FRA - 772.5
Last week: San Jose SF (w/o v. Raonic)

13 (16). Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA - 771.0
Last week: Rotterdam F (l. Soderling)

14 (14). Mardy Fish USA - 770.7
Last week: None

15 (12). Fernando Verdasco ESP - 768.4
Last week: San Jose F (l. Raonic)

16 (15). Mikhail Youzhny RUS - 767.5
Last week: Rotterdam QF (l. Soderling)

17 (17). Nicolas Almagro ESP - 766.8
Last week: Costa do Saupie W

18 (20). Viktor Troicki SRB - 754.6
Last week: Rotterdam SF (l. Soderling)

19 (18). Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP - 754.4
Last week: None

20 (23). Ivan Ljubicic CRO - 752.9
Last week: Rotterdam SF (l. Tsonga)

21 (19). Gilles Simon FRA - 752.5
Last week: Rotterdam R32 (l. Paire)

22 (24). Ernests Gulbis LAT - 750.6
Last week: None

23 (26). Michael Llodra FRA - 750.1
Last week: Rotterdam R16 (l. Tsonga)

24 (22). Richard Gasquet FRA - 750.1
Last week: None

25 (21). Lleyton Hewitt AUS - 749.4
Last week: San Jose QF (l. del Potro)

In: Michael Llodra
Out: Philipp Kohlschreiber