it must suck for players having your fate in someone's hands, would suck for anyone! a blessing in disguise in a way giving him a bit more time to rest though i'm sorry he's not in the semi. well done on a good year mr nole! see you in 2010.

this is SO sad!! sucks to end the year this way - he's played brilliantly since september. ah well, there's always 2010, hope he wins a slam. he needs to move up in the rankings NOW, he more than deserves it.

he needs to revise his schedule and choose tournaments wisely. one slam is a must for nole in 2010 and yes, he needs to improve his rankings.

it's not so bad for nole i feel. he grabbed back no. 3 spot which is good. i think on the men's side, it's going to be very hard to get to and stay on top unless you win slams. remember muzz was no. 2 for only a short time? although he didn't win a slam but he did keep winning tourney after tourney at the start of the year some people thought there was nothing stopping him. fed's not going anywhere and he's always a force to be reckoned with, rafa i believe will come out of his slump like fed did and delpo i think is the one more than deserves to be higher ranked but we have to look at their season long performances as the whole thing is base on points. muzz must win a slam to relief some pressure - any slam will do! by the same token you can't do a serena and hope to stay on top (sorry serena fans no harm intended). whatever i think tennis fans are getting a feast and we should be happy. time to rest up in this very, i repeat very short off season for non-DC players :)

if delpo wins the tournament he is world # 4.

it will be interesting to see how delpo handles himself in melbourne. there will be high expectations of him but i think he will handle it ok... nole needs to do better than he did this year in the warm ups. it simply won't do to play golf while the others are preparing for the season's first slam. people attacked him for changing rackets, wondering if he'll ever bounce back but in the last few weeks, he's been the player to beat as he's been consistently late in season. a pity he couldn't defend last year's shanghai masters. i really want to see him defend a title and break that spell.

i wonder who the dark horse of 2010 ao is going to be!!

posmatrac: It wouldn't be a surprise now if he were to lift the trophy. And reaching No.4 would be well deserved. If he can bring consistency to his present level of tennis then 2010 could see him going even higher.

homos: Well it goes ABC. Ancic if his health allows him to be. Benneteau if he believes in himself. Cilic if he puts on a bit of weight. For good measure I'll jump to Z for Zverev cos I like the way he faces up to the top ranked players.

homos: Nole's great strength is the way he learns from his mistakes. He has talent in abundance; he is in good shape physically; and he has the will to win. It remains to be seen how the addition of Todd Martin on his team will work out. Just hope too many cooks doesn't spoil the broth.

ed15: if it's ancic, he would only be a semi dark horse like maybe a pony :) the guy has talent and focus. don't think too many would be surprise seeing him go deep. need a little more wow factor like delpo who broke trhough at uso. fans will be glued to top 5 and it's going to be really hard for simon, hewitt (who always fights to the end regardless but i think the home slam will elude him yet again), tsonga, nando and davy to make a dent in week 2.

hey, maybe sexy steppy will be the dark horse! have you thought of that? :)

I'd rather not think about having to watch the Worm Dance more than once a year!

Ha hmmm as long as he keeps that worm in check until after next weekend.

lol ed25: something tells me you are a closet worm fan :)

ed251137, homos, true, delpo, providing he wins the wtf totally deserves #4 and i also think he should handle ao very well.

nole has matured on so many levels and i hope for his great 2010. i believe todd will have significant influence on his game next year.

just for curiosity sake ancic was nole's training partner before he contracted mono. there was some info he graduated from law school and started to work .. but again there was some info he is getting back to tennis? if that's true, this is great coz he plays beautiful tennis ..