Tennis latest; Andy Murray drops down to number five in the world
Scotland’s Andy Murray has dropped to number five in the latest ATP South African Airways rankings released on Monday. The new rankings mean that the 23-year-old Murray will face a potentially tougher draw at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month.
The top ranked Brit has been overtaken by the Swedish tennis ace, Robin Soderling, who captured the BNP Paribas Masters Men’s singles title on Sunday. Soderling thrashed Frenchman Gael Monfils in the final in two sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-1), to win his first Masters 1000 final on the ATP tour. The Swede made his way to the final after recording victories over Gilles Simon, Stanislas Wawrinka, Andy Roddick and Michael Llodra.
Both Soderling and Monfils however have already qualified for the season-ending finale in London. Murray, will take on either Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer in the group stage, and could now even meet Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Murray was seeded number three at the BNP Paribas Masters. Having received a first round bye, the Scott got the better of 2007 winner and former world number three David Nalbandian in three sets. He followed that up with another win over Marin Cilic in his third round match. In the quarters however, he was toppled by the last year’s runner up Gael Monfils in three sets 2-6, 6-2, 3-6.
The 1.90m Scot, has been ranked as high as number two on the tour in 2010 and prior to this Monday had spent just three weeks outside the top four since September 2008. The loss to Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Masters however paved the way for Soderling to grab fourth place in the world rankings.
Following his win in Paris, Soderling said, “I am going in the right direction. Now my aim is to be number three. This fills me with confidence for London. You have to play all the best players and each match is potentially a Grand Slam final, so you need enormous confidence. This could be one of the keys."
The change in rankings also implies that Murray will be grouped alongside Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer, Soderling or Djokovic, and Andy Roddick or David Ferrer when the draw for the round-robin stage takes place tomorrow.
Only two players from each group will reach the semi final round with the world's top eight doubles teams playing in the same format as well.
Murray triumphed in two of his three group clashes in London last year, however he still couldn’t qualify for the semis, as the Scot was bundled out on the percentage of games won by eventual runner-up Juan Martin del Potro.
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