ATP Rankings: Kei Nishikori moves ahead of Roger Federer. Novak Djokovic..
With the top-5 players skipping the last week's action on the Tour, they have remained in positions they were holding last Monday, with Novak Djokovic spending his 239th week on the ATP throne. The Serb has decided to take a well-deserved rest after winning the Australian Open crown and he will be back in action only at Indian Wells, not signing for any tournament in February after he built a significant lead over Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard will play in Acapulco next week, trying to reduce the deficit at least and gather some momentum before Indian Wells and Miami where all the players from the top should compete again.
The young German Alexander Zverev is still the closest rival to those at the top, trailing almost 2000 points to Nadal and working hard to draw the most from Acapulco campaign where he will be the second seed behind the Spaniard. Juan Martin del Potro returns to action this week after being sidelined since September with a knee injury, taking a wild card to headline Delray Beach filed and hoping to gain the momentum before March and the first Masters 1000 events, having to defend 1000 points at Indian Wells. Kevin Anderson decided to skip both New York and Delray Beach with an elbow injury and he missed the opportunity to close the gap over the Argentinian, standing almost 500 points behind Delpo.
The first player who made progress on the list is Kei Nishikori, winning 11 out of 13 matches this season and reaching the semi-final in Rotterdam to crack the top-6 for the first time since April 2017. The Japanese is now 90 points ahead of Roger Federer who will compete in Dubai next week and who is on the worst ranking position since March 2017. Dominic Thiem grabbed only 90 points in Buenos Aires, wasting a match point against Diego Schwartzman in the semis to lose the title, switching his focus to Rio de Janeiro where he will chase 500 points as the top seed.
John Isner was also halted in the semi-final of the ATP 250 event at home in New York, squandering six match points against Reilly Opelka in the semi-final but at least scoring first wins of the season after a slow start. Marin Cilic completes the top-10 group despite withdrawing from Rotterdam, staying in front of Karen Khachanov who was stunned in the first round of that event by Tallon Griekspoor, missing the opportunity to fight for the place in the top-10. Stefanos Tsitsipas was also beaten in the opening round in Rotterdam to stay 75 points behind the Russian and 200 ahead of Borna Coric with whom he plays in Marseille this week.
Milos Raonic remained 14th, one place above Rotterdam semi-finalist Daniil Medvedev who is on a career-high position after winning 14 matches in 2019 so far. Rotterdam champion Gael Monfils is back inside the top-25 and while the finalist Stan Wawrinka earned enough points to return inside the top-50 for the first time since June last year. Pablo Cuevas, Jaume Munar, Ernests Gulbis and Ugo Humbert have all made solid progress but the mover of the week award goes to the 21-year-old American Reilly Opelka who claimed the first ATP title in New York to gain 33 positions and enter the top-60 for the first time.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2BGg7MJ
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