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.

Andy Murray claimed his first title of 2010 beating former world number 1 and 16 time grand slam champion Roger Federer to retain the Rogers Cup title in a rainy Toronto. The Scot beat Federer for the 7th time in his career, but was the first straight sets victory that Murray has recorded over Federer.

Murray won the match 7-5 7-5 after 5 separate rain delays and appropriately brings there head to head record to 7-5 in Murray’s favour.

Murray had already beaten the world number one Rafael Nadaln the previuos round, making this the first time Murray has ever beaten both players in the same event.

Murray got of to a great start and raced into a 3-0 lead securing two breaks of serve before Federer stopped the rut and claimed a break back. The first set then wen t with serve and with Murray serving for the set at 5-4 he faltered and double-faulted on break point and Federer would level the match at 5-5.

It looked like the momentum was about to shift to Federer and the very least the set would got to a tie break, but neither of that happened as Murray broke straight back and then this time confidently served out the set.

They both traded breaks in serve early in the second set with rain stoppages effecting both players play. The set raced on to 5-5 and once again Murray was able to claim the break. Although Federer would get one chance to break Murray back, the Scot saved that point before securing the match on his second match point.

After the match Murray said,

It’s so tough closing out a match againt Roger, It was incredibly difficult conditions for both of us. The rain did not help but going into the dressing room gave me time to think, It was really tough but I came through in the end.

With just a few days to go, the question on every one’s lips is not who will win the world cup, its…

Who will win Wimbledon 2010?

The 2010 Wimbledon draw has been made and the favorites to lift the title have safely made it through to the second week. Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling and Lleyton Hewitt have now been eliminated and there are just 4 men left.

Rafael Nadal in the last 3 months has returned to his very best, after a 10 month period that seen him lose for the first time at Roland Garros, unable to defend his Wimbledon title and a string of poor results, the Spaniard looks to be back to his best both physically and mentally. He has regained his French Open title and world number 1 spot and now looks to regain his Wimbledon Title. Though he disappointingly went out of Queens Club at the quarter final stage. In his first match he looked good, though was then pushed to 5 sets in next two matches and looked to be suffering from a recurring knee injury. A straight sets win in the 4th and an impressive quarter fianl win over many folks tournament dark horse Robin Soderling pit any injury doubts to bed.

Despite all this Federer was the favourite ahead of Nadal to lift the 2010 title, something that may seem it little strange when you consider that Rafael Nadal now holds a 14-7 record over Federer and has won 6 of their last 7 matches, but he is the favorite now.

Andy Murray is the bookmakers 2nd favourite to win Wimbledon this year and they certainly believe the event winner will come from winner of the Murray Nadal semi final. His odds were 3 or 4 times that of Nadal or Federer, but those odds have been reducing after five very impressive wins., dropping just 1 set all tournament to date. His form since reaching the final at the Australian Open has been woeful and the Scot was looking like he was suffering from the crushing defeat in Melbourne. That form looks to behind him now and he now looks to be in the right frame of mind to claim his first grand slam.

Novak Djokovic’s failure to ever mount a challenge at Wimbledon and recent average form had seen him drop to 6th favourite but after overcoming tough 4th round match against Lleyton Hewitt and cruising past Lu. Djokovic is now favorite to reach the final from his semi final match.

Tomas Berdych – If you placed a bet on Berdych to win Wimbledon this year at the start of the tournament, then you would be in the running for a mighty profit. The big serving check wasn’t really on anyone’s radar, always consider an “under performer” until he reached the semi finals of Roland Garros last month. He eliminated Roger Federer though so does he really deserve the least likely to win tag?

Betfair have been offering the best odds all week on just about all the potential winners and when you sign up, you’ll receive a free £25 bet.

Favorites already Eliminated…

Roger Federer – 2 years ago after losing to Rafael Nadal in that now infamous Wimbledon final, people started to question whether or not the career of Federer was now on a downward spiral – he proved his critics wrong then, coming back to claim his 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th grand slam titles – though most importantly he never had to face Rafael Nadal in any of those events. Those same question have now surfaced again. To add to his woes he lost the final of Halle where he had been unbeaten since 2002. He was just a few points from being eliminated in the first round by Falla and even struggled past Hasse in the 2nd before looking comfortable against Clement in the 3rd round and Melzer in the 4th Round. It would be Tomas Berdych who eliminated the now former champ.

Andy Roddick was last years champion and was the 4th favourite coming into Wimbledon though he had dropped to 5th favourite to win this year. He took out Britain’s great hope last year in the semi finals before losing an epic final to Roger Federer. He has since had a decent 12 months whilst still not really challenging the top players. Early knock out at Queens was not the best preparations, but had looked decent in the first 3 rounds. He was dumped out though on court 2 in the 4th round by journey man Lu.

Roddick dropped the 4th favourite tag to Robin Soderling – The French Open finalist has cemented his place inside the top 10 and has recent wins over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray – He had been looking mighty impressive until he met Nadal that is.

The second Monday of Wimbledon is always a busy day, 8 men’s 4th round matches and 8 women’s 4th round matches need to be played and with just 3 matches assigned to each of the 2 main show courts it means that the public with ground passes get to see some potentially great matches. It also means that there is potential that a big star is going to be in unfamiliar territory on a smaller court and we may see an upset.

That’s what we got when Yen-Hsun Lu knocked out of the big favorites Andy Roddick on court 2 – Whether being on court 2 did affect Roddick or not is still in question, but Lu makes it through to his first Wimbledon quarter final to face Novak Djokovic.

So far the Roger Federer has looked a little shaky in the first 2 rounds and looked supremely good in the next two rounds, so when he faces Tomas Berdych on Wednesday which Federer will we get. Or will it be Berdych who decides who wins this one, a considered “under achiever” so far can the Czech player finally perform on the biggest stage.

In the bottom half of the draw, Murray has been making smooth progress and faces 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter finals, which should be the toughest match to date for the Scot. Meanwhile in the final match Nadal and Soderling renew there now growing rivalry can Soderling record another win over Nadal?

The third round of matches are now complete and the line up for the round of 16 is known. Of the 4 favorites to win Wimbledon, In the top half Roger Federer and in the bottom half Andy Murray have the toughest matches, whilst Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal both have unseeded opponents.

Federer takes on the resurgent Jurgen Meltzer, in recent months, the talented Jurgen Melzer has produced some of his best tennis and has risen to a career high of 16 in the world. He reached a career best semi final at Roland Garros last month only losing to Rafael Nadal and along the way came back from two sets down to eliminate Novak Djokovic. If Federer  is not on the top of his game, then this one could well be another stonker!

Andy Roddick faces unseeded Yen-Hsun Lu and the winner of that match will play the winner of probably the match ofthe day between two of the best outside bets for the title. 3rd seed Novak Djokovic will take on former Wimbledon winner and former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

In the bottom half of the draw Andy Murray will take on the winner of Queens this year and 18th seed Sam Querrey, see a Murray Querrey preview here. The winner of that match will definitely play a Frenchman as 32nd seed Julien Benneteau takes on 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Meanwhile Rafael Nadal will face another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu and will play the winner of what should be another great match between 6th seed Robin Soderling and 9th seed David Ferrer. Soderling as so far negotiated his way through the first 3 rounds with consummate ease and is looking supremely good – Watch out the rest of the draw for this Swedish dark-horse!

The 2010 Australian Open final between 15 time grand slam winner Roger Federer and Andy Murray will take place on the Rod Laver Arena tomorrow at 19:30 local time (8.30am UK time).

Andy Murray will be attempting to end the 74 year old wait for a British grand slam winner, whilst Roger Federer will be trying for his 4th title in Melbourne and extending his record number of slams to his name.

One stat that surely stands out more than any other is that when Roger Federer one his first grand slam he was aged 22 and competing in his 17th grand slam. Andy Murray is currently 22 and the Australian Open is the Scot’s 17th grand slam. The question is can Andy Murray emulate Federer?

The bookmakers see it has more likely that Murray will have to wait a little longer to claim that elusive first grand slam, with tradional bookies seeing Roger Federer favorite at 4/7 and Murray’s chances ranging from 6/5 to 3/2, though Betfair is offering even better odds than that.

Over the last 5 years the only thing that has changed about British players success in grand slams is the increase in the number of years since a British player lifted a grand slam trophy.

When Andy Murray burst onto the tennis scene in the summer of 2005, the question being asked then was – Can Andy Murray end Britain’s 69 year wait for a grand slam winner? It’s now 74 years since Fred Perry lifted his grand slam title and the debate over Andy Murray’s grand slam chances has never stopped.

Murray has ended one 72 year old record this week, not since Henry ‘Bunny’ Austin had a British player reached two grand slam finals – Murray reached his first slam final 17 months ago at the US Open, that day he fell short against the then 12 time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

Since that final Federer has reached every grand slam final and is now a 15 time grand slam champion, whilst Murray has failed to reach the grand slam heights that many predicted losing in the last 4 slams to players he regularly beats and ranked lower than the Scot.

Murray’s 2009 was his most successful year to date, with 6 titles and a brief spell as the world number 2, but despite those accomplishments 2009 will remain as the year that Murray did not win a grand slam. Many great things were predicted for Murray in 2009 including winning the Australian Open, he was favorite in many peoples eyes going into the event, but Murray lost in the 4th round to Fernando Verdasco a player he had beaten 6 times in a row.

2010 is starting how many people expected 2009 to start – Will 2009 be the last year that Murray did not win a grand slam?

Roger Federer’s five-year unbeaten reign at the US Open came to a dramatic five sets conclusion Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro claimed his first Grand Slam title.

Del Potro twice fought back from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. and also becoming the first man other than Rafael Nadal to beat Federer in the final of a Grand Slam tournament.

Del Potro’s performance all the more impressive as this the 20-year olds maiden Grand Slam final and first victory over Roger Federer – Now that is pulling out a performance when it really matters. After winning the 2009 US Open an emotional Del Potro said

I had two dreams this week, One was to win the US Open and the other one is to be like Roger. One is done, but I need to improve a lot to be like you, You fought until the final point. You are a great champion. I’m very happy to be here with this crown, with these people, on this court. This will be in my mind forever.

A slightly less emotional Federer said

I would like to congratulate Juan Martin on an unbelievable tournament. I had a great one but he was the best. I would have never believed I could win five in a row here. It has been an amazing run for me. I was two points from the match today. That’s the way it goes sometimes. But I’ve had an unbelievable run this year. Being in all major finals and winning two of those. Sure, I would have loved to win those two as well. But the year has been amazing already. Got married and had kids, don’t know how much more I want.

As for Andy Murray – this will go down as surely his most disappointing grand slam performance yet, the wrist injury may yet explain is poor showing but the way he went out as put a huge dent in his grand slam credibility.