Here’s a trivia question.  Who is the number 2 player in the world?  Unless you’re an avid tennis fan, you probably wouldn’t have picked Novak Djokovic.

Unless you’re an avid fan, you’ll scratch your head wondering how Djokovic became number 2.  It goes something like this.  What’s the last tournament Nadal won?

You have to go back to May when Nadal won Rome over Novak Djokovic to find the last time Nadal won a tournament.  It’s not that he’s played so badly, really.  When he’s playing, Rafa still reaches the semifinals.  He still reaches the finals.  He’s even come quite close to winning tournaments.

Meanwhile, Djokovic has won tournaments since May.  Djokovic won Beijing.  He won Basel.  He won Paris.  Those are all Masters 1000 events.  The casual tennis fan only cares about the Slams, but that’s three more Slams than Nadal won.

And of course, due to injury, Nadal lost early in the French Open (though Djokovic lost even earlier) and didn’t play Wimbledon (Djokovic reached the quarters, a better result than the previous year), and had his second best result at the US Open (getting to the semis, the same result as Djokovic).  Once Nadal’s Australian Open win came off the books, Djokovic merely had to repeat his effort from the previous year (quarterfinals) to get to number 2, something he hoped to do back in 2008.

Of the top 5 players, only Djokovic and Davydenko (who plays a lot) are playing this week.

Rotterdam has the star players of the three tournaments being played this week.  Davydenko beat veteran Melzer, 6-3, 6-2 and will meet Soderling in the semis who beat Julien Benneteau love and 1.  This is an intriguing match, actually.  When Soderling made his run to the French Open final, he met Davydenko in the quarterfinals.  Many thought Davydenko would beat Soderling because he so easily handled Verdasco.

However, Soderling was the one who had a winning record against Davydenko, and beat him in that quarterfinal match.  They met 3 more times after the French.  At the US Open, Soderling won when Davydenko retired.  In Kuala Lumpur, Davydenko finally got a win, but then lost in Paris.  Finally, Davydenko beat Soderling en route to the ATP World Tour Finals.

There’s no doubt about it.  Soderling gives Davydenko problems.  But Davydenko is also playing pretty good tennis especially with his ATP World Tour Finals title and his Doha win.  Soderling had a bad Australian Open, but is looking to get back into form.  Slight edge to Davydenko.

In the other semifinals, Mikhail Youzhny beat Gael Monfils in three sets.  Monfils has been playing solid tennis, though he has not been winning titles lately.  Youzhny had a pretty good post US Open tournament run, and appears to still be playing well.  Youzhny will play Djokovic who didn’t have to play a match since Florian Mayer didn’t opt to play.

In Costa de Sauipe in Brazil, two of the semifinalists have been determined.  Juan Carlos Ferrero and Igor Andreev are in the semifinals.  This event is played on clay and has primarily attracted clay courters.

In San Jose, only one semifinalist has been determined.  Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan beat Philipp Kohlschreiber in three sets.  Djokovic crushed Istomin at the Australian Open.  Andy Roddick faces Tomas Berdych, Verdasco plays Ricardis Berankis.  Berankis is 19 years old from Lithuania, and bucks the trend to taller and taller players.  At 5’8″, he’s one of the shorter players on tour.

Sam Querrey is on the comeback trail after a freak injury had him recovering during the fall instead of playing tournaments.  Querrey will play fellow American, Michael Russell, who is currently ranked 77.  Russell lost in the first round of the Australian Open in four sets to Juan Martin del Potro.

Fernando Verdasco, who had been using Technifibre racquets, was spotted in the SAP Open in San Jose playing with a Yonex.  It’s reported that he’s playing with the RDiS 200, the successor to the RDS 002.