It was only for a week after all that Andy Murray lost his no.4 place in the world rankings to Juan Del Potro, though it was during the week that the 2010 Austrailian open seedings were done, which means Murray will be seeded 5th in the draw making it likely he would face either Nadal, Federer, Djokovic or Del Poto in the quarter finals.

Murrays switch with Del Potro is the only change in rankings among the top 16, the only other top 20 change was tommy hass and  David Ferrer swapping 17th and 18th place.

The Monday after the Australian should see the ranking shaken up once again.

Andy Murray broke new ground once again as reaches the world number 2 spot for the first time in his short career. He was already the first ever Brit to reach world number 3 in the world after both Greg Rusedski and then Tim Henman peaked at number 4 in the world. He will now also be known as the Brit to reach the world number 2 spot.

Murray secured the number 2 spot last week in Montreal after reaching the final, he put even more distance between him and Rafael Nadal as he went on to win the title.

Murray and Federer have both prospered from Nadal’s injury that seen him miss Wimbledon (dropped 2000 points) and likely contribute to his loss in French Open. Murray’s  move up the rankings should not be overshadowed by this and his achievement is made even more significant when you consider that not for over 4 years has any other player than Roger Federer or Rafael occupied the top two spots.

Although Murray is defending champion at next weeks masters event in Cincinnati, he won’t be defending any points as he has already dropped those points due to the schedule change to accommodate the Olympics last year. Barring a first round knock out and Rafael Nadal winning the event Murray will be the Second seed at the US open.

Roger Federer is almost 2000 points ahead of Murray and looks in pole position to finish the year as world number 1. Murray or Nadal would really need to win the US Open to have any chance of snatching the world number 1 spot before then. If Murray was to beat Federer in the 2009 US final he would cut the gap to less than 500 points, making it a very real possibility.

No change in the ATP rankings this week in the top 12.

Though points wise, Nadal slightly increased his gap on Federer and Murray closed the gap on the top 2 and moved further ahead of Djokovic in third.

For the first time in almost a year though Rafael Nadal’s number 1 spot is under threat, If Nadal fails to reach the semi-finals and Federer goes on to win, the Swiss ace will regain the number 1 spot he lost last year.

Murray though also has the chance to reach number 2, all he has to do is win Wimbledon.

Very little change in rankings this week in the top 12, with only Nikolay Davydenko and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga swapping places, the Russian still suffering from injury.

Though points wise Roger Federer closed the gap (over 600 points) on Rafa with his win in Madrid, the Spaniard still holds massive advantage (over 4000 points) on the rest of field. Federer also stopped the trend of Andy Murray eating in to his points advantage he has over Scot and for the first time in months actually increased the points gap (though just by a few 100).

Murray and Djokovic remain within striking distance of Federer and are both just a grand slam win away from unseating the Swiss ace from his second place spot.

Andy Murray has been confirmed as the new world number 3 with the release of the latest rankings. Murray has surpassed the achievements of former British number ones Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, who reached career-highs of fourth in the world rankings.

Murray had known he would be number for over a week as the change in schedule last year to accommodate the Olympics meant that some tournaments were played a week late last year. Murray overtake Novak Djokovic in the rankings after the Serb failed to regain his Rome Masters Title, losing to clay god Rafael Nadal in the final.

Murray will now be hopeful of breaking up the dominance of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the top 2 spots, which will happen if the Scot can post two decent results in the upcoming Madrid masters and French Open. Murray said today

Rafa and Roger are probably the two best players ever so I’d love to try and break that up. The rankings reflect my good run and I just need to try and focus on winning. To get close, or in-between Roger and Rafa is tough, They’ve held the top two spots for five or six years. It’s an incredible run and Rafa has already won six Grand Slams. I just need to focus on winning matches.

Former Wimbledon favorite Tim Henman says Murray can go all the way to number 1 in the rankings.

The rankings don’t lie and he’s played so well since Wimbledon last year – there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to go higher and higher. There’s only two more spots to go but I really believe that he can be number one in the world one day. I think he’s got every opportunity of winning slams because his game is developing so quickly and he’s still so young.