it is shame that he took over the number 2 spot from Rafa when he didnt get to the semis of the event that led to that,they should do something about the ranking system specialy those minor tournments where some players can accumulate points and some how become on the top four there should be NO POINTS it simply a walk in the park no body goes there and the best seeded player is always the winniner it is like 250 points gift, when you look to Dubai it has some sense everybody is going but this torny:it is a joke!

tennislover, Rotterdam is ATP 500 just like Dubai...and Nole is not guilty cause last year finalists - Murray and Rafa, are not playing this year. So, you can't call this tourny "a joke"...

i agree the current points system has flaws, but at the same time in '09 Novak played more tournaments than other players...yes, on one hand his perfomance in those allowed him to climb to No2, but so did his perfomances in Slams and Masters. Yes, Rafa's injuries precluded him from retaining the No2, but at the same time Novak's form and consistency allowed him to get to No2...

he didnt get there by playing and winning 20 ATP250 tournaments!

So it is a gift of 500 points!
to tell you the truth I feel Murray deserves number 2 rank even Roddick because at least they made it to a final of slam in the last year the number of tournaments a player would play also has an influence on other players whom have a healthy schedule that allows them of a better competition in the slams so if Mr. Djokovic decides to play huge number of small tournaments like Belgrade and god knows what tournaments collects points here and there and feel bad in a slam match and end up number 2 before Nadal and Murray that is so wrong!
7 matches 5 setters then 200 points
5 mathces 3 setters 1000 points
4 matches 3 setters 5000 points
the hell yes it is a joke!

i mean 500 points

rubbish...

The ATP250 Novak played in Belgrade, he fought to get a licence for, bought the licence, brought the tournament to Belgrade (his hometown) and organised it.... and you expect him to then NOT play in front of his home town fans??

Why does Fed play at Basel every year (another ATP250 that he won for 3 sucessive years until last year)? Why did Nadal harm himself by playing in
Madrid when he was already exhausted?

Consistency is the key and was last year, Novak's win loss ratio was 78:19, while Roddick's was 45:15, Murray's was 66:11...dont forget early in the season Murray injured his wrist, mid season Roddick took a break to get married and then at the end of season missed 3 tournaments due to knee injury...Novak suffered no injuries and played the full season! As I said consistency is the key, thus Novak is No2 (as he should be) and Murray is 3, while Roddick is No7......

I agree that it is unfortunate that Rafa did not have a chance to defend his #2 ranking because of injury, but to suggest that Muzz and Roddick deserve that position more than Novak is nonsensical. By saying "at least they made it to a final of slam" do you mean that rankings should be decided based on _one_ tournament? Then Nole should have been #2 in spring 08 with the AO08 title and US07 finals. What kind of retarded ranking system are you proposing tennislover? Or are you just trying to get us riled up?

The first person to be thankful that Rafa is injured should be a certain RF.

ATP rankings breakdown:
GS and WTC 1930
ATP1000 4480
ATP500 1500
Below ATP500 400
8310

ATP rankings breakdown:
GS and WTC 1930
ATP1000 4480
ATP500 1500
Below ATP500 400
8310

@tennishater,

why don't you file an official complaint to ATP and let us know how it goes?

stu, please dont bring that up.it comes up all the time.everyone benefits from everyone in terms of whether a certain play is injured, whether that be rafa,murray, novak.(being injured). you have to look at why someone gets injured in the first place and I dont feel that this is the right thread for that sort of discussion.
novak has worked hard to get his position to no.2. he has played more tournaments than anyone last year (possibly not to his favour, if he becomes exhausted - what's the point?).but again, with rafa and I'l keep this brief.he is the one who organises his schedule stu,he played many tournaments and in my view, did too much, reason why he is now in the situation. so whose fault is that? no one else's but rafas and if that means that everyone benefits, then in one way, great for all players, but in another, bad that key player (rafa) has to put himself through so much only to have to take time off to recover.

maxi, i was responding to tennislover, and i have never disagreed with the basic essence of your post above. do you get an alert that pops up every time federers name is mentioned?

listen you decided to call me a tennishate simply because i think ranking should be more caring about slams rather small tourny or else in no time we will see Safina of ATP soon.
Djoko played in Bejing,Belgrad,Basel,Dubai this year added Rotterdam end up wining all of them as he might end up mostly winning Rotterdam it is 5 tournys !( Federer only played Basel) this is how he got up to 2nd ranking he only won one master which is Paris and his best slam performence was semi in USO and was beaten in the rest by Roddick(AO),Kolishriber(FO),Haas(Wimby) (not so impressive)
am simply saying that there should be limits for the number of small tournments a player should play that goes into his ranking because 5 tournments can worth as high as a slam ranking wise.
since this Djoko thread i should excpect some nonesenses adressed to me enjoy it while you have it because after Wimbledon things will be in prespective again with slams monesters are where they should be! you know the guys who dont have always something to complain about the stomech and the heat and god knows what

5 setters are ATP 3 setters are for WTP, sorry wrong number

I tend to agree with you, tennislover...the same stands for Davy. He plays and obviously wins a lot of smaller tournaments and when it comes to GSs he is nowhere around...it is just so unfortunate that these small tournaments and the ridiculous ATP pointing system can change things around so easily, but that is just the way it is...I personally disagree with Nole's decision to keep on playing too many tournaments during the year as he will again underperform on GSs. I think he can do much better than that...

tennislover, you do realize that there _is_ a limit to the number of small tournaments that can contribute towards points? even if novak plays (and wins) 5 ATP 500 tournys, only 3 of them can contribute towards his total. federer has 3 ATP 500 tournys added as well, but he didn't do as well in them. thats his own fault, not novaks/ rafas/ andys. whats wrong in trying to get maximum points in any tournament you play. you really dont know much about tennis do you?

I think this *** **** (tennislover) needs some lessons here........I for long kept quiet to all those novak bashing and some ppl praising murray for his achievements etc. I thought they will soon wake upto reality but this guy really is nuts........

you want to talk abt who deserve no.2 based on GS lets talk u idiot......

u mentioned murray or even roddick deserves to be no.2 oh really lets just do some fact check here.........

1) novak GS since 2007 french:

2007:

french - semi; wimb - semi; US - finalist;

2008:

aus -winner; french-semi; wimd -2ndrd; US-semi;

2009:

aus-qf; french-3rd; wimd-QF; US-semi and now QF in AUS;

Lets go to ur guy murray:

dont have info abt 2007 as he is unheard then.
2008:
aus-1strd, french-3rd rd (or less), wimb-QF, US -final
2009
aus-4thrd, french-4th or QF; wimb-semi; US-4th rd
AUS2010-finalist

Now djoker has been really consistent till 2008 USopen and he only lost to nadal/roger (except once to safin in wimb). I know ppl argue that if not for roger, then roddick wud have many slams now and I think if I apply the same to djoker at 22 itself he will have many slams (3 US atleast). He has really underperformed in 2009 (host of issue there and not giving any excuse) and his recent QF loss is sheer bad luck than anything (anyone with sane mind who watched that match with 2sets to 1 lead will know it). I guess he prepared himself for tough physical parts of the game but a minor ailment (which if happened even 20-30 mins later wud be OK) caused him the match. anyway I dont want to excuse this by any means and lets say that he is still having a tough run at GS.

lets talk abt ur deserved no.2 players. according to you they deserve No.2 because they play well in GS. really in 2009 ur murray reached only one semi and so is djoker. he reached one quarter and so is djoker. He got out in 4th rd in 2 opens and I think 3rd and QF will atleast compensate that.

So how in the world are u saying that this guy is more deserved than djoker to be No.2 and started bashing him. Oh I forgot he reached final in recent open so he should be No.2 you know what go to hell.

And whats up with all these guys saying murray deserves a slam and he is unlucky etc. He could not win a set against RF in final and the match is not even remotely close and he started crying. And ppl compare that to Roger/Nadal crying. Are you nuts. Roger/Nadal played an exhilarating five sets with breathtaking display and a very few pts separated them and it is ok to vent emotions when you have done ur job and ur so close. If reaching finals demands that u shud be a winner then u know what gonzalez shud be a winner as he reached AUS finals as well.

let me stop here because I can tear ur murray's so called media hyped run even lower. Wait for how ppl perform in the rest of the season and make sound judgement based on their play and not on some emotional nonsense.

Nadal is not number 2 because he is not able to play as well as he could. For that he is not No.1 as well (not taking credit from fed guys). And if anyoone deserves to get No.2 outside of Nadal/Fed, it is clearly Djokovic (way ahead of the rest).

FYI - Djokovic is very much against playing more tournaments but ATP needs everyone to play GS, all masters and a minimum amt of 500/250 events.

Get your facts right before risking in forum (especially when it invovles djoker/fed/rafa)

sathisht- i agree- the way nole was going in 2007 and even 2008 to some extent, i thought he saved his best performances for the slams. that was reversed in 2009, as we have all noticed..

nice work sathisht79, but there will always be haters around and the guy is notorious.

i agree that Murray is hyped, but to be fair it is not his fault, he is tough to beat tho i personally don't like his style much (but that's my problem).

Stu - true he didn't do as well as he shud have. I think its a combination of things. In AUS he had racquoet change and fitness issue. He is the one to be blamed for that and he shudn't have done that. But I also think it is stupid decision from tournament organisers to not close the roof when weather experts issued death warning for those exposed to sun on that QF day. His withdrawal has made matters worse which I thought he shud not have done though he got some unfair treatment to play in that condition. PPl shud recollect that roof is closed for next match itself.

I think his heroic performance in Masters clay season and not able to beat nadal (the greatest clay courter of all time) despite being so close has affected him mentally so much that of all the persons he lost to kohlscriber in 3rd round (not to mention he was the 2nd best player at that time next to nadal). The early french loss is like adding salt to the wound and I guess he never recovered until late in season. This AUS open is real bad luck and I think he realised that which is why he took in +ve stride and started practising immediately in melbourne despite losing in QF.

I think he will do well in coming slams and since he tasted no.2 it will take some pressure off as well. He needs to finetune his serve to his 2007/2008 level which will then make him to be very dangerous.

and RFZR I agree murray improved a bit in this AUS open but not to the extent that media is hyping. I dont think he is GS material yet but thats just me. We will see.

i suppose i do stu.no worries.

OHhhhh...Fed fans will always be so hapy to jump on every Nole's victory...
Why??? Because they know that Nole is dangerous. He had allready shaken that pat position in world tennis two years ago... Rafa will take FO...OK, Fed will take the rest and everybody is happy.
And then came Nole... and tennis become much more interesant to watch...
"It was Novak Djokovic who gave them ( young players ) that kind of confidence that they can take majors even if Federer and Rafa are in competition."
...take look at "DEUCE" on official ATP site.
This year he will take No1... just question of time...

zare, i love nole. what's your problem?

Maxi have you read first post here...ok , not you but ppl like fedfan, tennislover, torres...no comments:-(

i get the feeling that Nole chose to play rotterdam to allow himself a chance to skip his title defense in dubai. it will be hard to play 4 tournaments in 5 weeks - dubai, davis cup, indian wells, miami!

stu,
he's got Dubai listed as the next tourney on his schedule, so I doubt it....