January 31st Rankings

Novak Djokovic played some spectacular tennis to claim the Australian Open title for the second time, and while he managed to narrow the gap to Roger Federer for #2, the Serbian is still #3, though he will have plenty of chances to move up. Otherwise, there weren't many changes in the top 10; semifinalist David Ferrer went past David Nalbandian into 6th, Stanislas Wawrinka moved past Roddick, whom he beat, with the Swiss #2 going to 8th, and Tomas Berdych got into the top 10, at the expense of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.


Winners:
Australian Open
#3 Novak Djokovic SRB (3)
1st round Marcel Granollers ESP (61) | 6-1 6-3 6-1
2nd round Ivan Dodig CRO (90) | 7-5 6-7(8) 6-0 6-2
3rd round #29 Viktor Troicki SRB (22) | 6-2 ret.
4th round #14 Nicolas Almagro ESP (17) | 6-3 6-4 6-0
Quarters #6 Tomas Berdych CZE (10) | 6-1 7-6(5) 6-1
Semis #2 Roger Federer SUI (2) | 7-6(3) 7-5 6-4
Final #5 Andy Murray GBR (4) | 6-4 6-2 6-3
Average Opponent Rank 29.4

Djokovic lost just one set all tournament, and that was in a close tiebreaker in an early round match. He looked in clear command against Murray in the final, and registered a second straight semifinal win over Federer, while also making solid threats like Berdych
and Almagro look pretty week.

Challengers:
Bucaramanga: #5 Eric Prodon FRA (140) d. Fernando Romboli BRA (377)
Heilbronn: Bastian Knittel GER (177) d. #6 Daniel Brands GER (93)
Honolulu: #6 Ryan Harrison USA (109) d. Alex Kuznetsov USA (218)
Reunion: Abandoned due to rain and flooding
Singapore: Dmitry Tursunov RUS (94) d. #5 Lukas Rosol CZE (131)

Futures:
Brazil F4: Ricardo Hocevar BRA (305)
China F2: Mao-Xin Gong CHN (335)
Germany F2: Jan Mertl CZE (182)
Great Britain F2: Harri Heliovaara FIN (397)
Israel F2: Adam Kellner HUN (346)
Mexico F1: Roman Borvanov MDA (446)
Spain F2: Pablo Carreno-Busta ESP (293)
Turkey F2: Abandoned due to rain
USA F2: Alex Bogdanovic GBR (211)
Brazil F5: Andre Ghem BRA (363)
Cambodia F1: Danai Udomchoke THA (247)
France F1: Maxime Teixiera FRA (264)
Germany F3: Jan Mertl CZE (182)
Guatemala F1: Christopher Diaz-Figueroa GUA (684)
Israel F3: Adam Kellner HUN (346)
Spain F3: Pedro Clar-Rossello ESP (316)
Turkey F3: Marcin Gawron POL (368)
USA F3: Phillip Simmonds USA (460)

Interesting that two tournaments were rained out; Reunion was unable to get past the round of 16, while Turkey F1 couldn't complete the final due to rain and a problem with their indoor courts.

Riser of the Week (top 100):
Tommy Robredo ESP (37), Up 19
Robredo had a fairly poor 2010, falling out of the top 50 by year's end, but got back to some form in Melbourne. He lost easily to Santiago Giraldo (51) in the first round last year, but his time around got wins over Somdev Devvarman (157), Mardy Fish (13) and Sergiy Stakhovsky (60), before falling to Roger Federer (2).

Riser of the Week (other):
Milos Raonic CAN (116), Up 68
The talented young Canadian, who just turned 20 a month or so ago, was one of the big stories of the tournament, as he advanced to the fourth round, a joint best for any Canadian. Along the way, he notched three impressive straight set wins, beating Bjorn Phau (105), Michael Llodra (27) and Mikhail Youzhny (15), before giving a solid challenge to David Ferrer (6). He certainly looks like a player to watch this season.

Dropper of the Week (top 100):
Nikolay Davydenko RUS (36), Down 14
Davydenko's struggles continue; it's hard to believe that just a year ago he came into Melbourne flying high, and gave Federer a real scare before capitulating in the quarterfinals. Coming in off a finals appearance in Doha, things seemed promising for him, but he lost first round to Florian Mayer (31), sending him well out of the top 25.

Dropper of the Week:
Evgeny Korolev KAZ (166), Down 71
Last year at this time, Korolev was flying relatively high, having made the third round in Melbourne with a win over Tomas Berdych (10). A poor season followed though, and Korolev was unable to even qualify for the main draw in this year's event, losing in the second round of qualies to Frank Dancevic (139). He then proceeded to the Heilbronn challenger, where he lost first round to Alex Bogomolov (174). Two losses in the ranking period really did a lot of damage to his position, sending him out of the top 100.


1 (1). Rafael Nadal ESP - 837.5
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Ferrer)

2 (2). Roger Federer SUI - 821.1
Last week: Australian Open SF (l. Djokovic)

3 (3). Novak Djokovic SRB - 815.0
Last week: Australian Open W

4 (4). Andy Murray GBR - 798.9
Last week: Australian Open F (l. Djokovic)

5 (5). Robin Soderling SWE - 798.3
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Dolgopolov)

6 (7). David Ferrer ESP - 791.9
Last week: Australian Open SF (l. Murray)

7 (6). David Nalbandian ARG - 788.1
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Berankis)

8 (9). Stanislas Wawrinka SUI - 786.4
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Federer)

9 (8). Andy Roddick USA - 780.6
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Wawrinka)

10 (12). Tomas Berdych CZE - 780.5
Last week: Australian Open QF (l. Djokovic)

11 (13). Jurgen Melzer AUT - 775.3
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Murray)

12 (15). Fernando Verdasco ESP - 773.1
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Berdych)

13 (14). Mardy Fish USA - 771.0
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Robredo)

14 (16). Gael Monfils FRA - 771.0
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Wawrinka)

15 (11). Mikhail Youzhny RUS - 770.2
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Raonic)

16 (10). Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA - 768.9
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Dolgopolov)

17 (18). Nicolas Almagro ESP - 765.1
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Djokovic)

18 (25). Juan Carlos Ferrero ESP - 757.1
Last week: None

19 (21). Gilles Simon FRA - 755.9
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Federer)

20 (27). Richard Gasquet FRA - 751.7
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Berdych)

21 (19). Lleyton Hewitt AUS - 750.9
Last week: Australian Open R128 (l. Nalbandian)

22 (31). Viktor Troicki SRB - 750.8
Last week: Australian Open R32 (l. Djokovic)

23 (20). Marin Cilic CRO - 750.1
Last week: Australian Open R16 (l. Nadal)

24 (24). Ernests Gulbis LAT - 749.0
Last week: Australian Open R128 (l. Becker)

25 (23). Philipp Kohlschreiber GER - 748.5
Last week: Australian Open R64 (l. Berdych)

In: Richard Gasquet, Viktor Troicki
Out: Ivo Karlovic, Nikolay Davydenko