Andy Murray cemented his hold on the world #4 ranking at the Australian Open and, indeed, closed the gap somewhat on Djokovic at #3 who he needs to by-pass if he's to overtake the career highs enjoyed by both Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski. There's still a way to go yet, but who'd bet against it?

Away from those rarified heights, Josh Goodall closed in ever so slightly on Alex Bogdanovic for the GB #2 spot rising 9 places to 195 with Alex gaining 4 places to #181.

Colin Fleming's good start to the year sees him up 58 places this week to 590 whilst the biggest riser of all GB guys this week is Morgan Phillips up 373 to 1493. He's threatening to carry on the good work this week having battled his way through 3 rounds of qualifying on Spanish clay.

Andy Murray picked up his 10th ATP title in Rotterdam last weekend beating world #1 Rafa Nadal in the final to put himself 455 further points clear of Davydenko in the #4 slot. Andy's 2505 points ahead now but still 1640 short of Djokovic at #3.

Mind you, Andy could be getting pretty darn close at Indian Wells next month with Djokovic defending 1000 points as last year's winner and Andy only having 150 to defend.

Biggest climber again this week was Morgan Phillips who's been putting together a nice run of form down there in Spain; up another 108 to 1388 this time and next week should see another good rise when last week's tourney has fed through. He put out the #3 seed world 489 at that one!

Alexander Ward is also doing good things down there, up 16 to 957 this week, and through to the QFs in this week's tourney including putting out the world #544 second seed in the first round after battling through qualifying.

Jonathan Marray's great run in Germany a fortnight ago has given him a rise of 22 places this week to 434 , making his position as GB #8 a bit more secure ahead of Daniel Evans who also went up, by 5 to 454.

As anticipated, Morgan Phillips is the biggest riser in the singles list again today up 29 to 1359.

Big rises are more difficult the further up the list you are, of course, so the +12 to world 306 achieved by GB #5 Richard Bloomfield on the back of winning through the ATP Marseilles qualifiers is

It was pretty close to being in fact, Richard taking the world #32 to 2 tie-break sets in R32.

The doubles list sees Ross Hutchins getting a tad closer to Jamie Murray for the GB #1 spot; Jamie drops 2 to 38 with Ross steady on 42 some 153 ranking points adrift.

Josh Goodall's good week in Trento reaped rewards whilst my back was turned last week, it seems ! He took over from Alex Bogdanovic as GB #2 and world #192 against Boggo's world #198.

Josh followed that up with playing his way into the Davis Cup team for this past week-end's fixture against Ukraine. With Andy Murray sidelined with a virus, GB went down 4-1 in the fixture; it was a week-end of close sets going the wrong way for Josh including the opening rubber which was three tie-breaks!

Chris Eaton also played his way into the squad and picked up GB's point.

Back to the rankings news, biggest GB riser today is Alexander Ward +34 to #892 on the back of his good stuff down in Spain.

Top 10 Brit Guys this week are: 4 Andy; 191 Josh; 195 Alex; 289 James Ward; 335 Richard Bloomfield; 338 Alexander Slabinsky; 384 Chris; 427 Jonathan Marray; 451 Daniel Evans; 572 Colin Fleming.

Andy still 4th in the world after making the final in Indian Wells but closing in at a rate of knots on Djokovic for the #3 berth to be the highest ranked Brit Guy since the rankings began in 1973! Andy and Novak both only defending 10 ranking points at Miami next up.

Top 10 Brit Guys this week are in the same order as my last post: 4 Andy; 187 Josh; 192 Alex B; 283 James; 325 Richard; 336 Alex S; 383 Chris; 426 Jonathan; 439 Daniel; 571 Colin

Big news in the doubles list is Ross overtaking Jamie as GB #1 at world 36 against world 51. James Auckland is GB #3 (world 173); Josh is GB #4 (world 187); Andy is GB #5 (world 193).

No official rankings news this week as Miami wends its way towards its climax...and what a climax it could be with 3 of the world's top 4 through to the semis!

The good news for Andy, having blown Verdasco away 1&2 in his QF , is that he'll for sure be getting a bit closer to Nadal for the top slot ...albeit Rafa is somewhat over the horizon at the moment.

Andy's opponent in the SF is Del Potro instead which, on balance, is probably a good thing...surely it'll be after the Lord Mayor's Show for the Argentinian after beating Nadal in their QF?

Andy'll have to wait another week at least, however, to overhaul Djokovic for the #3 spot as Novak's through to the other semi (to take on Federer) and therefore is assured to still be #3 on Monday.

So, Andy will be getting closer to both Nadal AND Federer this week...but not necessarily Djokovic (yet! ) ; Andy put away Del Potro in 3 sets and now faces Novak in today's final!

Go, Andy!

OK the final wasn't yesterday! Good luck today, Andy!

Not that luck enters into it much judging by the way you dealt with Del Potro...just great play!

Awesome stuff from Andy today!

6-2 7-5 win over Djokovic in the Miami final for his third Masters title and putting him just 170 ranking points adrift of the world number 3 spot...it's just a matter of (not much) time surely?!

OK, no move for Andy this week but it won't be long!

Biggest mover this week (for the umpteenth time this year!) is Morgan Phillips up 160 to 1184 ; he had close competition from Max Jones up 142 to 1394 ;

Really big rises from higher up the echelons, too, this week! Dan Evans up 112 to world 327 and to GB #5 from GB #9 in one fell swoop thanks to his title win in Jersey!

Another Dan (Cox) is also in the + three digits news this week up 102 to world 703!

The good news doesn't stop there...Colin Fleming up 52 to world 519 and Alex Bogdanovic up 13 to world 179! The Brit Guys are on the charge!

Alex's rankings boost means he's GB #2 again after a short spell behind Josh Goodall. Josh and James Ward (GB #4) had a quiet fortnight just drifting backwards slightly...but no doubt they will be back on the front foot again soon!

With Murray 3-2 up in the first set in his QF against Davydenko in the Monte Carlo Masters, it's time to start getting excited about Andy not only overhauling Djokovic sometime soon for the world #3 spot (could be this week-end! ) but also Federer for the #2 berth!

Novak is this week defending 450 points from last year against Andy's 150 and Roger's 700.

By my calculations (E&OE always required! ), Roger's 3rd round exit means that for sure Andy will have closed the gap by 640 points from 2180 to 1540 even if he loses his QF. He will also have overtaken Novak if Novak loses his SF.

Andy could be guaranteed the #3 slot by tomorrow evening!

Phew! Break point saved and it's 4-3* to Andy!

I'll have to leave it there...catch up later!

WOW! That was quick! Andy breaks to 15 so it's 5*-3!

Serve it out, Andy!

OK, yes, I'm really going now!

The nick of time!

Just managed to click onto live scores in time for match point!

OK, Andy didn't serve out the set but 7-6(1) 6-4 will do very nicely, thankyou!

Reeling Novak and Roger in!!

Many thanks to Steven of www.britishtennis.net for pointing out that due to calendar differences between last year and this the points from MC2008 still count on Monday.

Elation postponed, then, until the various differences come out in the wash after Rome, it seems.

But hey, my money is on Andy being world #2 by the end of the US Open if not before!

Today's order of play has Djokovic v Wawrinka at not before 12.30pm BST with Murray v Nadal following on

Nadal is the undisputed king of clay so today may just be a necessary learning experience for Andy

We'll see....

Wawrinka takes first set 6-4

Oops! Wawrinka 0-4*
Looks like a 3-setter!

Wawrinka loses in 3
Andy v Rafa next up.
Prove me wrong, Andy!

It's a losing battle/learning experience so far

The good news is Andy's break point conversion rate is 100%
The bad news is he's only had one to Rafa's 7 albeit Rafa's conversion rate is a miserable 43%

That's 2-6 1*-2 then in just over an hour