Novak Djokovic Moves Ahead Of Roger Federer In 2012 ATP Rankings

i care a rat’s a$$ abt rankings now for roger…he is well beyond that…just wanted him to overtake pete’s record and he did that…now onwards anything that roger wins be it masters gslams, no 1 ranking etc is a big bonus…and yes i will be seeing my god for the first time in barclays world tour finals…really hope feddy bear plays! i have spent a bomb for watching him ;-)

August 13th, 2012 at 11:15 am

I’m guessing the US Open will decide the year-end #1 (if either Nole or Fed win).

August 13th, 2012 at 11:20 am

gannu,

:-)

August 13th, 2012 at 11:42 am

I think Fed will still give it one last push in the next 6 tournaments – Cincy, USO, Shanghai, Basel, Paris, London – altogether 7,000 ranking points up for grabs, of which Fed is defending 3,900. If he can get the year end No. 1 ranking (though it doesn’t mean much – he already has the max weeks at No. 1), he can really get the one last record that Sampras still has.

Getting a USO would be a bonus – since nobody has ever won 6 USO titles (at least not in the open era).

Lets see… Does Djokovic still have energy and drive? Is Murray really injured? Can Nadal come back strong from the break? Can Fed sustain his level for another 3 months? Lets see…

August 13th, 2012 at 12:03 pm

I’ll add one more – Can DelPo really get something going, finally??

August 13th, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Tom Gainey:

“If Federer reaches the final, he will remain No. 1. Djokovic has to at least make the final to hold any hope of returning to No. 1 and being the top seed at the US Open. Djokovic can also win the title and reclaim No. 1 as long as he doesn’t beat Federer in the final”.

Am I reading this right? “as long as he DOESN’T beat Federer in the final?”. Should it be DOES. So, does novak HAVE to beat Roger in the final (if Roger reaches the final), for him to stay at no. 1?

Congrats to novak for his win in Toronto :)

August 13th, 2012 at 12:47 pm

I have Novak as favorite for the USO, he’s the undisputed king of hardcourts. He showed a great display of attacking tennis in Toronto, despite not playing any top 4. He looks in great form, finally.

August 13th, 2012 at 1:14 pm

Novak was dominant against Gasquet. He looked like a world #1. Although his bread-and-butter may have taken a step back this year (his return of serve, defense, serve and groundstroke consistency), he has developed other parts of his game. His net game now is a real strength that he never used to have. He is faster to the kill shot than he used to be, and has a better drop shot. He has more variety than he did last year. He is probably the favourite for USO, though its hard to hold him much higher than Murray and Federer.
Look for more clues in Cincy!

August 13th, 2012 at 1:22 pm

@trufan,

Yeah thanks for mentioning Delpo….he is having a good year and he may be ready for another USO Title!

TV,

Re: Novaks return

Or guys are getting more in tuned with there serving games against Novak, disguising it or hitting better locale with it…??

August 13th, 2012 at 1:28 pm

‘He looks in great form, finally.’

LMFAO AT THAT RIDICULOUS STATEMENT!

People need to have a good perspective on matters regarding djokovic!

He beat in toronto: tomic, qurrey, haas, tipsarevic and gasquet.

Was he struggling to beat these guys in the last 8 months? NO.

Were such players a problem for him since the start of the year? NO.

Bottomline is, he has ONLY lost to isner at IW and tipsy in madrid this year, in loses outside those to rafa, fed and muzza.

And the tipsy loss was more of a result of novak’s disdain for the blue clay as opposed to tipsy’s game.

So in a sense, he’s ONLY LOST 1 match to non-top4 players this year, isner at IW.

Long story short, his main problem over the last few months has NOT BEEN FORM, but the fact that his main rivals for the big titles (fed, rafa, muzza, delpo) happened to play better than him when they met.

Fed, rafa, muzza, delpo ARE HIS PROBLEM- NOT FORM!

And we should treat his win in the rogers cup similarly to rafa’s when he wins the barcelona open on clay, IMO.

sure he won, BUT look at the field, the lack of threat they possess to him, and the absence of the big players!

The main prize is the USO in this swing, and rafa, fed, muzza, delpo, tsonga etc intelligently either skipped the tourny (toronto) or got out of there as soon as they could.

IF i were a novak fan, i would be more concerned about burnout due to the amount of tennis he has played recently- far more than his rivals!

IMHO he needs a rest- winning the rogers cup against that field does not prove or mean anything regarding his form!

In fact i’ll ask a question:

– IF rafa played this tourny and faced tomic, querrey, haas, tipsy and gasquet- do you think he would win this thing in his 1st tourny back post injury?

– Would rafa be the fav for USO IF on his return he beat such a weak set of opposition?

LOL- of course not!

It is what it is: he beat players that he was always going to win against. So we shouldn’t read too much into what it means regarding his form!

August 13th, 2012 at 1:35 pm

@Skeezer:

‘Re: Novaks return

Or guys are getting more in tuned with there serving games against Novak, disguising it or hitting better locale with it…??’

AGREE COMPLETELY WITH THIS!

Prime recent example is in his match against muzza at olympics.

Novak played a great match, he could not play much better on grass IMO.

He created the BP chances, but he could not convert since muzza served extremely well on these points.

August 13th, 2012 at 1:41 pm

TV, glad to hear you noticed the improvement in Nole’s net game: still not a top one but it’s better. Didn’t see the final but the stats say Nole did pretty well at net. He must be working on it. He said he and Marian wanted to make his game even more aggressive so he wouldn’t have to play gruelling & long points. As to his return game, it’s still rather stellar methinks. Other cheering news is that his service game seems to also be improving. He is 3rd in second serve points won and 8th in total service games won this year. Don’t think I have seen Nole that high in serving categories for a long while. Maybe this year is transitional. He’s trying to work on his game to transform it into one with which he can get some easier points perhaps. We’ll see.

August 13th, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Oops, just checked and actually Nole’s 2nd serve/service game numbers are on par with last year too. Didn’t think so, as his return stood out so much.

But he does have more aces this year: he is at 15th place and last year ended at 26th.

August 13th, 2012 at 1:47 pm

Brando, Nole has played less tennis than pretty much everyone else this year.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/YTD-Singles.aspx

I kind of hope he doesn’t go “all out” at Cincy though, and that he saves energy for the USO. But I am not too worried either way. He is doing well this year imo.

August 13th, 2012 at 1:52 pm

@Jane:

We are in the USO swing, and prior to the USO (the big prize this time of the year) novak could have played 3 weeks of tennis in 4 weeks.

That is more than rafa, fed already. Muzza and delpo most probably.

Novak has played the maximum possible matches at olympics, toronto and now he is going to cincy.

He’ll at least make SF there, possibly finals- which would mean he has played ALOT of tennis prior to USO W/O any real break.

Meanwhile, rafa has taken a rest, so has fed, so has muzza, and now delpo ( who celebrated his medal win in his home country post toronto).

Novak, on the other hand, complained about tiredness post olympics and said this post the gasquet win:

‘ “I truly did not expect myself to win this tournament after the emotional losses in the Olympic Games. I really took it hard. ‘

Quite clearly, he needs a break!

Simply put- he is a victim of his own success from last year!

Had he not had to defend 1,600 points out of 2,000 possible points in rogers cup/ cincy swing then you can be certain he would have DEFINITELY SKIPPED one of the 2 tournies.

Long story short, he needs a break and could, potentially, risk burn out by the time he gets to USO super saturday.

Re- is he doing well this year?

OF COURSE he is. I just would not read too much or place too much emphasis on his win in rogers cup and what it could mean regarding his form.

Quite honestly speaking, i would EXPECT rafa to even win this tourny on his return against that opposition (tomic, querrey, haas, tipsy and gasquet)!

August 13th, 2012 at 2:06 pm

Personally, I don’t think he needs a break- maybe it’s like how Rafa goes full throttle through the clay season? That said, I don’t expect him to win Cincy. He’s played only 12 tournaments this year, so he should be okay schedule/energy wise. He’s a momentum guy. Anyhow, we’ll see what happens in Cincy – maybe he’ll lose first round: both Hasse and Seppi have been tricky for him in the past.

August 13th, 2012 at 2:21 pm

http://tennisabides.com/2012/08/13/power-ranking-for-august-13-19/ Here is my Power Ranking for the week – Cincy should be interesting as someone could sneak through the top 3 seeds and win especially if conditions are humid enough that Murray, Federer and Nole decide not to risk the USO. Luckily the week does not look like one of the awful August Ohio valley humidity and heat fests.

August 13th, 2012 at 3:21 pm

Baker takes the first set. Contador must be happy!

Grandmajoan drama has me locked out of the bracket. She registered twice and now I went on and tried to help her and i can’t get on. If you look her up in the main draw she is there. I have sent atpworldtour an email to release the lock on both of our computers due to grandmajoans nonsense.

August 13th, 2012 at 3:25 pm

The problem with Cincinnati is that even if Djokovic loses to Murray, like last year, then it won’t tell much. We still don’t know if Murray will ever win a slam. If Djokovic loses to Federer in the Cincinnati final then that means more. Tells me at the USO Federer will beat Djokovic like in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

August 13th, 2012 at 4:01 pm

If Djokovic wins Cincinnati by beating Murray and Federer after losing 3 finals there then he either will win USO for real again or be burnt out for the USO. Very rarely player wins Canada/Cincinnati/USO in the same year, only Roddick and Rafter, I think.

August 13th, 2012 at 4:04 pm

HUH???????

According to the ATP ranking Roger is still #!
Federer…11345
Djokovic…11270

August 13th, 2012 at 4:07 pm

Stella “2012 ATP Rankings” – i.e., the Race. Here is the link:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/YTD-Singles.aspx

The rolling rankings still have last year’s points – until the end of the year – included.

August 13th, 2012 at 4:10 pm

Jane is correct, in “the race”. But Fed is the current #1 In the world until further notice;

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx

August 13th, 2012 at 4:31 pm

Tsonga’s out of Cincy; he walked into in fire hydrant. What?!

http://longislandtennismagazine.com/article4565/tsonga-skip-southern-open-cinncinati

August 13th, 2012 at 5:23 pm

Djokovic should stick to tournaments where most of the top ranked players are playing … he could rack up more points ..

August 13th, 2012 at 6:32 pm

hm, i kind of agree, Gaga.

But i am making sacrifices to tennis gods for andy murray to win his 1st GS at the US Open.

my 1st guess about cincy was a Nole – Muzz final but switched to Federer – Del Potro final.

i’m a Federer fan, Gaga but i’m completely satisfied with his career; not asking more from him as a fan of his tennis.

ready for the murrovic era w/ some others like delpo, plus a bit more glory by fedal mixed in. rafa of course is not over; and having egg on my face, i banned myself when roger got to #1. i lol’d at him regaining #1, so had to do my time for blasphemy. i won’t rule out the mighty federer again; lesson learned.

August 13th, 2012 at 7:13 pm

This Bleacher Report writer is an idiot. Novak is still 2 and Federer is still 1. How could you get this wrong, Moron?

August 13th, 2012 at 7:48 pm

The best for tennis would be Murray or Del Potro winning the USO. Four different slam winners, breathe new life into the sport.

August 13th, 2012 at 8:50 pm

For me I don’t know really know about the game plan, the rankings, and not much of the rules, I just fell in love with Tennis 3yrs ago @ the US0 and since then I’ve loved it, nowtalking about my Fav. No other person than the Nole, you don’t mess with Nole, he’s a great player and No 1, Fed is the #GOAT no doubt bt I can die for Novak, talkin abt d cincy and USO, its gonn be Nole once again ya’ll. Wacth out for ma main man…..Nole for life

August 14th, 2012 at 4:56 am

@Wiznot, which writer are you referring to? This is Tennis-x, not Bleacher Report. And if you put THIS BLEACHER REPORT instead of TENNIS-X by mistake, then you shuold read carefully before posting. There’s nothing wrong with this article.

August 14th, 2012 at 5:53 am

Showboy,

Way to go!

Regards from Noleland.

August 14th, 2012 at 9:25 am

It seems that the O2 arena will be the championship that decides the yearend ranking. So it should be.

Or Fed is going to pull away from Djoker the next few tourneys. But Djokovic seems to put in extra effort when Fed is not around.

I expect a few more meetings between them. Djoker enters Basel eery year. So maybe they meet another 5 times for the remaining of the year.

Rafa is getting more and more doubtfull of entering US Open. He is defintely not ready 9mentally) to get in the mix eventhough he is not so far behind in year to date ranking.

August 14th, 2012 at 9:33 am

Sienna, Rafa is having knee problem not mentally problem, can’t you see the different??

August 14th, 2012 at 10:37 am

It is clear to me that rafa is not ready fysically and mentally for the fast surfaces.
After the rosol loss they evaluated current state and the team decided that he doesnt stand a chance the comming 3 -6 months

He just doesnot want to lose anymore against #100 on atp tour level.
So this is pure damage control. by not entering they keep the myth alive.

August 14th, 2012 at 10:52 am

Metafan, it’s just easier for people to relate to problems they go through themselves usually.

August 14th, 2012 at 11:09 am