Slams are worth so much that after each Slam, there is usually a rankings shakeup.
Perhaps, most notably, is Roger Federer slipping from number 2 in the world to number 3 behind Novak Djokovic. Federer would have stayed at number 2 had Djokovic not reached the semifinals or similarly if he had reached the semifinals. The combination of the two meant Federer dropped a fair number of points while Djokovic moved up some points, and Djokovic now has a slender 20 point lead.
If you consider just the last four Slams, it seems odd that Djokovic is ahead. Djokovic was a semifinalist at the US Open, a quarterfinalist at the Australian and French Open and a semifinalist at Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Federer was a US Open finalist, won the Australian Open, and was a quarterfinalist at the French and Wimbledon. Much of this had to do with Djokovic’s results right near the US Open.
In particular, Djokovic won Paris Indoors (which is offset by Federer winning Cincinnati, but Djokovic was a finalist at Cincinnati), then won at Basel and Beijing. He was also a semifinalist at Shanghai last year and Monte Carlo this year. Overall, Djokovic tends to go deep into tournaments even if he isn’t always winning them.
Robin Soderling moved up to 5 in the world and is now ahead of Nikolay Davyenko. Although del Potro didn’t play Wimbledon, his ranking actually went up by one. This is mostly because del Potro lost to Hewitt in the second round, and therefore didn’t lose too many points, while Roddick was defending finalist points and lost in the quarterfinals. Roddick slipped to 9th because of that. Berdych moved into the top 10 with his finalist appearance moving into 8th, just ahead of Roddick. Isner and Querrey are now 18th and 19th, mostly because Ferrero, who was a quarterfinalist last year, lost early this year.
Not surprisingly, Yen-Hsun Lu made a huge leap, 40 spots to 42nd in the world for reaching the quarterfinals of a Slam for the first time. Paul Henri Mathieu moved up 15 spots to 51 in the world. As a side note, if you were to win one Slam in a year, and nothing else, you would be 17th in the world. That’s how much the Slams are worth.
Federer hasn’t been number 3 since November 10, 2003. Because he is so close to Novak Djokovic in the rankings, one way for Federer to get back to number 2 is to play Washington, something he’s never done. He only has one ATP 500 tournament that he played in, which was Basel, where he lost to Djokovic. Federer has to defend Cincinnati. He lost in the quarters of Canada (last year it was Montreal, this year, it will be Toronto) to Tsonga, so a better performance there would be helpful.
With most of the top players taking a break before Toronto, we won’t get an idea of what form anyone is in until then. This should be the first tournament since Wimbledon for Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic. Actually, Djokovic is planning to play Los Angeles which hasn’t happened lately (he didn’t play in 2009 and 2008). Radek Stepanek will mark his return to tour at Los Angeles. He’s been out with an injury for some time now. Ernests Gulbis, who lost in the first round at the French, and skipped Wimbledon due to the injury sustained at the French, will also return at Los Angeles. Sam Querrey is defending champion. He is currently playing Newport where he was finalist last year.
