Andy Murray’s 4th spot in the world was under threat last week, with the Scot needing to reach the final to retain his ranking. He actually went onto win the event and will more than likely be the world number 4 when the US Open comes around.

The 2nd and 3rd placing though are not certain with Federer regaining 2nd in the world this week after reaching the Toronto final beating new world number 3 Djokovic along the way. The difference between these two is just 130 points and with Federer beating Djokovic in last years Cincinnati final both have a lot of points to defend this week. If Federer fails to reach the semi-final this week he will be passed by Djokovic regardless of what the Serb does.

Juan Martin Del Potro continues to fall down the rankings as he continues to struggle with injury. He has not added any points to his 12 month total since the Australian Open in January and will lose a further 2000 points if he does not compete at the US Open. He will likely drop out of the top 20 if he does not reach final at flushing meadows.

Andy Roddick also continues to drop in the rankings, though has just been diagnosed with a virus that may have been affecting his energy levels over the last three months.

Very little change in the ATP world rankings this week, with the only upward movement of Nicolas Almagro climbing two places from 20 to 18 after winning the ATP 250 title in Sweden, beating home favorite Robin Soderling in the final.

Almagro’s climb pushes Americans Sam Queerey and John Isner down to 19th and 20th respectively.

There was no change in the British top 20 this week, Richard Bloomfield was not able to build on Newport success as he was beaten by fellow Brit Alex Bogdanovic in the first round of a challenger event in California.  Despite that win for Bogdanovic he ultimately dropped ranking points after only reaching the quarter-final on the event. He reached the semi finals of the challenger in Manchester a year earlier.

On the whole for the top 20 British players, they gained 17 points to bring the total British top 20 points total to 1619, that’s excluding Andy Murray of course. 1619 points is not even enough points for the top 20 and would place them as a collective at just 24th in the rankings. Adding in Murray’s points would take them to 6774, which would see them as a collective only in 4th the same position Murray holds on his own…….and they have gained points this week!

Players in bold gained points.

Whilst there was no change in the top 20 this week, with most players resting after Wimbledon or in Davis Cup action, there was however a significant climb up the rankings for Britain’s Richard Bloomfield who climbed 260 places in the rankings from 552 to 292 after reaching a tour level ATP event semi final in Newport.

Bloomfield was lucky to even enter the qualifying event, with a ranking in the 500′s that would mean on most ATP events not even be close enough to enter qualifying with. He did get in though and won three qualifying matches and then went on to win three more matches in the main draw before losing to Mardy Fish.

Other good British news was Jamie Baker raising 6 places that takes into the worlds 250, which means we now have 3 British men inside the worlds top 250.

Roger Federer has once again slipped down the rankings after losing in the quarter finals of another grand slam. In the last 4 weeks he has dropped over 4000 points and replaced them with less than 1000 as he failed to defend his two grand slam titles from last year.

His position is not likely to get any better as he has a number of big points to defend in the coming weeks, with 1000 points earned in Cincinnati last August and 1,200 points from reaching the final of the US open. Should he not have a good US hard court season he will be under threat from the likes of Andy Murray, Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko, which could see him drop from the prestigious top 4.

Meanwhile Rafael has all but secured the number 1 spot for the rest of the year, he’s almost 4,000 points ahead of Djokovic in 2nd and only has a handful of points to defend the rest of the year and his more than likely to increase his lead than be caught.

Juan Martin Del Potro continues to drop down the rankings having been injured for most of the year, he will drop out the top 10 for definite if he is not able to compete in the next two months and could well be out the top 20 soon.

Robin Soderling and Tomas Berdych rise to career highs of 5th and 8th respectively after good Wimbledon showings, unlike Andy Roddick who wasn’t able to match his success of last year at the All England club.

Special mention of Sam Querrey who enters the top 20 for the first time in his career. The Americans now have three players in the top 20, which has been done since the days of Pete Samprass.

Andy Murray dropped to 5th in the world rankings for the second time this year and it’s the second week in a row the Scot has dropped a place in the ATP world rankings. It comes after another dismal week and first round knockout* in Monte Carlo which allowed Juan Martin Del Potro to jump Murray in the rankings without even competing himself.

Murray failed to defend his points he earned last year when he reached the semi finals and now moves on to the Rome masters where he hopes to regain some form and gain some points as he has no points to defend in Rome after losing in his first match last year.

Rafael Nadal looks to back to his best as he powered to his first masters win in almost a year and if his form maintains he will soon be up to world number 2 – The Spaniard is just 400 points behind Novak Djokovic.

Nadal defeated Fernando Verdasco in the Monte Carlo final, Verdasco’s final appearance pushed the Spaniard into the the top 10, making Spain the only country to have two players in the top 10 and Spain’s dominance in the men’s game is underlined by this stat – 25% of the top 20 are Spanish – That’s 5 players that Spain have in the top 20 of the ATP world Rankings – France and the Czech Republic are the only other country who can boast more than 1 player in the top 20 – they have 2 each..

*Technically it was the second round in Monte Carlo that Murray was eliminated in after receiving a 1st round bye.

Andy Murray continues to yo-yo between 3rd and 4th in the world rankings as he once again drops to 4th in the world. This time though the 4th position may be a little more permanent and he is more likely to fall further in the rankings than regain 3rd spot in the coming weeks.

Over the last three weeks Murray has lost nearly 1420 points after failing to defend his points from 2009 where he won the 1000 masters event in Miami and reached the final at the other 1000 masters event in Indian Wells. Murray suffered a 2nd round defeat in Miami and only managed to make the quarter finals in Indian wells.

Murray is now over 1000 points behind Rafael Nadal, nearly 200 points behind 2nd place Novak Djokovic and Roger Federe is almost 5000 point ahead of the Scot. Though the difference could have been worse if any of the top 4 had performed better in the 2 American Masters events.

Murray is now looking over his shoulder as Juan Martin Del Potro is just 100 points behind and Nikolay Davydenko only 500 points behind Murray. Andy Roddick, the winner in Miami is now within touching distance of the top 5 and only 1000 points behind Murray.

Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray continue swap positions in the rankings with Murray once again moving into position 3 in the world rankings. It’s the fourth separate occasion that Murray has been ranked at 3 in the world – His highest position in the ATP world rankings remains his spell as world number 2 in August 2009.

There are two big movers in the world top 20 this week with Thomas Berdych returning the top 20, moving up 5 places, but the biggest mover is Ivan Ljubicic, after winning his first ever master series event he climbed 13 places up to position 13 in the rankings.