Djokovic catches up on Federer in ATP Rankings

By Ashley Williams

Novak Djokovic scored 1,000 ATP rankings points with Shanghai Masters triumph.

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) October 15, 2012: Novak Djokovic scored 1,000 ranking points with the Shanghai Masters title Sunday which took him just 195 points below world number one Roger Federer in the latest ATP Rankings published on Monday.

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Roger Federer, who lost to Andy Murray in the semis, has 12,165 points as he is now number one for a total of 300 weeks.

Djokovic is 195 points away with three championships yet to be decided in 2012 ATP calendar.

Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in three sets by 5-7 7-6 (13-11) 6-3 in final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters which spanned for over three hours on Sunday which showed him in great form and shape to challenge Roger Federer on top of the ATP Tour Rankings.

As per the ATP rules, the Masters tournament has worth of 1,000 rankings points and with three Masters left this season there are a maximum of 3,000 rankings points up for grab and with Roger Federer enjoying a pretty slim lead of 195 points over Novak Djokovic, the battle has just heated up tremendously right towards the end of the season.

Roger Federer could have had a bigger lead on his Serbian opponent had he defeated Olympic and US Open title holder Andy Murray in Semi-Final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters.

Interestingly, all the three ATP Masters events will have Roger Federer as the defending champion after the Swiss tennis maestro revved up his game right at the end of the last year to came back into contention.

Andy Murray trails Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as world number three while out-of-action Rafael Nadal is ranked fourth. All of these four players have qualified for the World Tour Finals and David Ferrer also joined them as fifth qualifier on Monday, which means the battle for the top spot will get to the wire. It also means that the battle will also have some means left for the players down the rankings as well.

As per the latest ATP Tour Rankings released Monday, the only change in the Top 10 was Tomas Berdych who improved his position by a place as he moved to sixth from seventh after losing to Novak Djokovic in the Shanghai Semi-Finals. He has replaced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at sixth and has a slender 30 points lead over the Frenchman.

There are three ATP tournaments this week where four top 10 players are in the draws. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tomas Berdych will be seen in action in Stockholm in Sweden while Juan Martin del Potro and Janko Tipsarevic will be vying for the laurels at Vienna, Austria.

Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro are the leaders for the last three invitations to the World Tour Finals.

Following are the latest ATP Tour Rankings.

01-Roger Federer              12,165

02-Novak Djokovic            11,970

03-Andy Murray                 7,690

04-Rafael Nadal                6,995

05-David Ferrer                 5,360

06-Tomas Berdych             4,840

07-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga        4,810

08-Juan Martin del Potro     3,670

09-Janko Tipsarevic           3,265

10-Juan Monaco                2,775

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Battle for ATP World Number One Heats Up

By Ali Ahmed

Can Roger Federer equal Pete Sampras record of ending season as World Number 1 for six years?

KARACHI, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) October 16, 2012: World number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia won Shanghai Masters in big time on Sunday to get closer to world number one Roger Federer.

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Serbian tennis ace won his fifth title of the year in Shanghai this weekend and now he has won three ATP Masters titles this season.

Novak Djokovic who had a phenomenal last year was able to win only one Grand Slam this year and thus lost his number one ranking to Roger Federer in Wimbledon where the Swiss tennis maestro got the better of him in semi-final.

On the other hand, world number one Roger Federer added another feather to his crown by staying world number one for over 300 weeks and became only male player to do this and is still far ahead with this record because he is followed by Rafael Nadal who could get hold of number one position for 102 weeks thus far.

Roger Federer has been enjoying number one spot and can add another feat by finishing the year as best male tennis player for the sixth time in his ATP career. If he is able to do that he will equalize Pete Sampras’s record who achieved it from 1993 till 1998.

But at the same time Swiss player is struggling to retain his top ranking after getting defeated by Andy Murray in the Shanghai Masters last week.

After 2003 this is the year where no player is dominating so far and Grand Slams shared by four different players, In 2003, Andre Agassi, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer, and Andy Roddick had won the Grand Slam titles and this year Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray have got their hands on the Grand Slam titles. Interestingly, ATP Masters titles this year have been shared by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

But Rafael Nadal couldn’t increase his winning tally after a shock defeat in Wimbledon because of injury and still couldn’t return to the court and now Andy Murray is 4,400 points away from world number one Roger Federer. Failing to win the ATP Masters is one of the biggest reasons for Andy Murray’s massive points-difference with the number one.

So, the battle for world number one is still on for Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Conditions are quite tough for Roger Federer because he has to defend his all three scheduled tournaments.

Last year, Roger finished the season with an astonishing run, claiming the Basel, Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals titles. Djokovic and Murray will be the part for all these three events this year so Federer will have to be at his very best to repeat the feat.

So Defending 3,000 points will be quite tough for Swiss maestro but don’t forget Roger has won 20 Titles in Indoor Stadium and boasts a very impressive record in Basel and ATP World Tour Finals where he has won five and six titles respectively but surprisingly he won Paris Masters only once.

Novak Djokovic couldn’t make into any of the finals of these tournaments last year but managed to win Basel and Paris Master in 2009 and ATP world Tour Finals in 2008 and showed fabulous performance in last two weeks.

So the race will virtually be on till second week of November this year.

Will Novak Djokovic finish the year with number one rank for second consecutive time or will it be Roger Federer who will equalize Pete’s feat to finish the year with number one rank for sixth year?

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