It’s rare for anyone to pay attention to the rankings beyond the top 3 or 4.  Djokovic is number 1 by far, then Nadal is 2 by far, then Federer is 3 by far.  Then, Murray is number 4 by far.  Each successive player is about 2000 points ahead of the next one.

But peruse down the rankings and you’ll see just how tight the race is.

You don’t have to go far.  Robin Soderling was once number 4 in the ranks (this was back in January).  However, he has been 5 for a while.  Nipping at his heels only 175 points behind is David Ferrer.

35 points separate number 8 Tomas Berdych with number 9 Mardy Fish.

There are 25 points that separate number 10 Andy Roddick from number 12 Jurgen Melzer.  Indeed, Richard Gasquet is only 5 points behind Andy Murray.  Gasquet is close to getting back into the top ten.

Only 35 points separate number 13 Viktor Troicki from number 16 Stan Wawrinka with Nicolas Almagro and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sandwiched in between.

With these players ranked so close, you can expect a fair bit of jostling in the upcoming weeks.