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Murray back in top ten as Nadal closes gap

07/07/2008

Britain's Andy Murray has moved back into the top ten in the world after jumping two places to ninth in the latest ATP rankings released today.

And world number two Rafael Nadal is closer than he has been to Roger Federer for some time in terms of ranking points following his sensational victory in last night's Wimbledon final.

Murray overtakes Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka and the man he beat in the fourth round at the All England Club, Richard Gasquet, to move up from 11th.

And the Scot is set to continue moving up the standings over the next few weeks if he continues to show the form of his run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals as he has no ranking points to defend during the majority of the hard-court season.

Murray missed the current portion of the ATP Tour in 2007 because of a three-month layoff with a wrist injury, so any tournament ranking points earned before August will only add to his total.

Spaniard Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.

And as a result, he is now only 545 ranking points behind Federer - who has been world number one since February 2004.

When the last rankings were released a fortnight ago, Nadal was 1145 points behind the Swiss star.

A number of the Mallorcan's results from last year's hard-court season could be significantly improved this year, with a fourth-round exit at the US Open sandwiched between a second-round loss at the Cincinnati Masters and a quarter-final defeat in the Madrid Masters.

Conversely, Federer's record on the hard courts in 2007 was formidable.

He made final appearances at the Canada and Madrid Masters and won in Cincinnati and at the US Open, so any dropped points will adversely affect his running total and give Nadal a good chance of closing the gap still further.

Elsewhere a number of other players have seen significant gains after their performances in SW19.

Feliciano Lopez is up 13 places to 22nd after his run to the quarter-finals, while Mario Ancic has risen 19 spots to 24th after reaching the same stage.

Rainer Schuettler and Marat Safin have jumped 55 spots and 35 spots to 39th and 40th in the world, respectively, after both men went as far as the semi-finals.

Full ATP Tour top ten men's rankings:

1- Roger Federer
2- Rafael Nadal
3- Novak Djokovic
4- David Ferrer
5- Nikolay Davydenko
6- Andy Roddick
7- David Nalbandian
8- James Blake
9- Andy Murray
10- Stanislas Wawrinka