Tennisers of the World, Unite! The topspin blog

A look at the men's race, and what to expect till end-of-year:
First, here is where they stand. Their points are the 1st number, points to next-man-up 2nd, and points to defend from this point to end of year is 3rd (ie how many points they won last year from the US Open to end of year)

1) Rog: 11240; ---; 1400
2) Nadal: 8845; 2400 (to catch Rog); 700
3) Murray: 8390; 250 (to catch Rafa); 2350
4) Djoker: 7480; 900 (to catch Murray); 1840
5) DelPo: 6825; 550 (to catch Murray); 1170

Now, between here and Christmas, there are a few small tourneys, but also two Masters 1000s, and the year end championship. So 3 chances for big points. Looking above we see that Murray and Djoker have WHACKS of points to defend, while Rog, DelPo and Rafa have fewer.

SO:
*Rog is virtually untouchable at #1, and having relatively few points to defend from last year, he should enter Australia with an even firmer grip on the top spot.
*Andy SEEMS close to Rafa, but in reality, Andy has the most to lose here, while Rafa has the least to lose. So, although Rafa is injured and just pulled out of a small event, he has some healing time before the next big one. So unless Murray dominates this part of the year, as he did last year, Rafa will increase his hold on #2.
*DelPo is positioned very well to make a run at Djoker, and even Murray. Djoker also did well last year, winning the Year-End. If he doesn't duplicate that success, and DelPo goes on a roll, look for a new number 4 by Christmas. And if Murray really slumps, we could have DelPo enter Australia at #3!

Which puts Andy and Nole up for year end spankings!