The main ATP site keeps track of two races.  The rankings, as they stand now, which include one year of ranking points, and the rankings starting from January 1.  Despite Roger Federer being number 1, Novak Djokovic has a healthy lead in the 2012 rankings.

  1. Novak Djokovic (9910)
  2. Roger Federer (8905)
  3. Rafael Nadal (6840)
  4. Andy Murray (6730)

In the year-to-date rankings, Djokovic is 1000 points ahead of Federer.  Federer is taking time off to decide how important it is to be number 1.  He’s already broken the record for weeks at number 1.  For Federer to finish at number 1, he would have to play comparably well as last year where he won Basel, Paris, and the year-end championships.  Those three wins total 3000 points and explain why Federer is number 1 (he has all those points from last year).  If Rafael Nadal does not return this year, then Murray should end the year at number 3 because he only needs 110 points to tie Nadal.

Traditionally, Nadal likes to play the Asian tour and then skip Paris to prep for the year-end championships.  Djokovic usually skips the Asian tour except Shanghai.  Last year, Murray did the Asian swing, playing Bangkok and Tokyo, but was worn out by the end of the year.  He may choose not to defend Bangkok and save himself for the later parts of the year.

Djokovic seems like he’s in better shape than when he finished the US Open last year where he injured his back, and didn’t seem like himself for the rest of the year.