Murray slips out of the top 20

With the latest update of ATP Rankings, Britains Andy Murray has found himself outside the world’s top 20 players for the first time since August 2006.

Murray had made his best ever start to a season (10-1 win/loss) but has since struggled, winning only four out of his last eight matches.He has slipped nine places to 22nd, and along with Guillermo Canas also dropping nine places, it has allowed Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya back inside the top 20.

However the Murray camp (Andy now has an entourage to rival Jennifer Lopez) will not be overly worried with the situation. Coming up next is the clay court season, and whilst this may not be Murray’s best surface, he should be able to move back up the rankings. This is because he has no points at all to defend, having missed the whole clay and grass court season last year with a wrist injury.

This should see a swift march back up the table for Murray, and as long as he can stay injury free up to Wimbledon, and play to the standard we know he can, it is not unrealistic for him to be challenging for a place in the top 5 by the time the tour reaches the All England Club again.

ATP Rankings explained

The ATP ranking system can appear quite confusing to the untrained eye, especially when a player can get to a final of a tournament, and still lose points, so I will do my best to clarify it.

Essentially it is quite simple; a players points for the year are calculated from 13 mandatory events (the four Grand Slams, and nine Master Series events) plus five other International Series tournaments. If a player misses one or more of the ‘mandatory’ events, then they can replace it with the appropriate amount of International Series tournaments.

It works on the principle of a players ‘Best 18’ results from the year. The rankings do not stop and start at a particular date, like the end of a football season. They are ongoing, so players are constantly having to battle to retain points they may have won the previous year.

For example, last season Rafael Nadal won the upcoming Master Series event at Indian Wells (which netted him a cool 500 points). That means that should he finish as runner up this time round (350 points), it will result in a net loss of 150 points from last year. The bigger the tournament, the more points there are on offer. The official points breakdown is as follows:

Grand Slam: Winner-1000, Final- 700, Semi- 450, Quarters- 250, Round of 16 – 150, Round of 32 – 75, Round of 64 – 35, Round of 128 – 5

Master Series: Winner- 500, Final – 350, Semi -225, Quarters- 125, Round of 16- 75, Round of 32- 35, Round of 64- 5

The International Series events vary somwhat depending on the size of the tournament but a rough guide is: Winner- 250, Final- 175, Semi -110, Quarter – 60, Round of 16 – 25, Round of 32- 15

Hopefully that has made the ATP ranking system slightly clearer, although it might have made it even more confusing. Any comments are welcome. For more information, check out the Rankings FAQ.