Need a miracle now at 2-6 2-4

Andy saves a match point and then breaks for 4*-5

This boy knows how to fight back from the brink!

Tie break!

Andy loses the tie break 7-4 and the match in 2 hours 8 minutes.

A very decent fight, though; roll on Roland Garros!

Djokovic lost to Nadal (albeit in 3 sets) so to my mind Andy's now the notional world #3...it may show up in the actual rankings next Monday (but maybe not...the rules changes this year, which were intended to make things easier to understand, are baffling better brains than mine! ). We'll see!

Biggest riser this week (and next probably!) is Dan Cox thanks to his Turkish exploits taking him +44 to new CH world 654

Nice rises this week also for Marcus Willis +31 to 913; Chris Eaton +13 to 370 and Miles Kasiri +39 to 1818.

Bizarrely (presumably a load of retirements/injuries feeding through into the numbers?) every single one of the world ranked Brit Guys goes up this week except Andy, a non-mover, and Josh Goodall who is our only faller -22 to 231. A good result this time last year presumably dropping off

ATP confirm that Andy WILL be world #3 on 11 May after the points for Rome 2008, which Djokovic won, drop off

This week's list is very quiet on the newsworthy front, however

Andy Murray is today the highest ranked Brit Guy EVER!

Since the rankings were first introduced in 1973, until today 3 GBR men shared the honour of having got to world #4...Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Andy Murray.

Andy is now out on his own ahead of Djokovic by a whisker and can now start hunting down the Fed!

By the end of this year's US Open, says I!

Hats off for James Ward this week!

Fantastic win in 3 sets in the final of the $50k event on the green clay of Sarasota, Florida Plus a rise of 47 in today's rankings to be breathing down the neck of Josh Goodall for the GB #3 slot.

Top 10 Brit Guys are: 3 Andy Murray; 198 Alex Bogdanovic; 219 Josh; 224 James; 316 Daniel Evans; 322 Richard Bloomfield; 336 Chris Eaton; 355 Alex Slabinsky; 403 Jonathan Marray; 504 Colin Fleming

Fingers crossed it's Morgan for a title this week!

After James' brilliant success in Florida last week, this week it's Morgan Phillips' turn to shine at the ITF in Palma, Italy. 6 wins under his belt so far including 2 in qualifying; won his QF against the 2nd seed and world 317 4&2 ; also beat the 8th and 5th seeds along the way; just needs to take out the 4th seed in the final now.

Agonisingly close, Mors!

Morgan gave Italian 4th seed Arnaboldi a heroic fight on his home soil but went down 9-7 in the first set tiebreaker and then 6-3 in the second.

Been a brilliant week, though!

And he's straight into the Main Draw for this week's instalment of the Italian job in Cesena. Keep up the great work, Mors!

Andy Murray pulling away from Djokovic to be 1210 points clear as world #3 after the French Open ; as we all know, Federer has his moment with destiny to lift the title for the first time, draw level with Sampras on 14 slams and become only the 6th player ever to complete the full set of slams; trying to make a monkey out of my prediction that Andy will ahve overhauled him by the end of the US Open this year!

Meanwhile back on planet Earth, great to confirm Josh's return to the top 200 (just!...199!) after his great run at Nottingham; Morgan's leap up the rankings (+306 to 860) after his Italian job; and Dan Smethurst +132 to 845 after his runner-up spot in Roumania on 24th May. Good work, Guys!

Top 10 Brit Guys: 3 Andy; 189 Alex B; 199 Josh; 220 James W; 308 Dan E; 311 Richard B; 324 Chris E; 389 Alex S; 396 Jonathan M; 494 Colin F

Not much movement at all this week but Andy's win at Queens has put much clear blue water between him and world #4 Djokovic who lost to Tommy Haas in the final at Halle; and in fact the spread between Andy in third and Rafa in first has nearly halved over the last 5 weeks from 6370 to 3505; still a big gap but not out of sight now!

In fact, if Andy were to displace Fred Perry as the last British mens singles Wimbledon champion, and Rafa as defending champion, that gap would start to take on width of fag paper proportions

Here's a providence tempter!

In Vohorland, two weeks on Monday the world rankings will be

1. Nadal 10,735 points; (enjoy your #1 status while it lasts, Rafa!)
2. Murray 10,730 (with apologies, move over Fred Perry!)
3. Federer 10,420 (and move over Fed!)

We'll see!

OK that's part 1 fallen in line

I didn't want Rafa to withdraw from Wimby (honest!...the Championship will be the poorer for his absence) but I had a feeling that he would have to. So, that's Rafa becalmed at 10,735

Just need Andy to do the rest now!

That didn't quite work, then!

Andy M losing in 4 close sets to Andy R and then Andy R losing in 5 even closer sets to Roger means the top 3 has changed but not in the way anticipated!

World top 4 this week:

1. Roger 11,220; 2. Rafa 10,735; 3. Andy M 9,450; 4. Novak 8,150

Big gap then to: 5. Del Potro 5,705; 6. Andy R 5,440

Top 10 Brit Guys this week:

1. Andy 3; 2. Alex B 191; 3. Josh 192; 4. James 209; 5. Dan E 292; 6. Richard 345; 7. Alex S 374; 8. Colin 479; 9. Dan C 496; 10. Jonathan 518.

New entry this week was Dan C +127 in the world list

Big drop for Alex B this week

Only big news in this week's world list is Alex dropping 50 places meaning Josh and James move up one each in the GB rankings. Top 5 Brit Guys this week:

World #3(0) Andy 9450pts; 184(+8) Josh 366pts; 206(+3) James 322pts; 241(-50) Alex 248pts; 289(+3) Dan 195pts

Time for a look at the doubles list!

Major news this year has been Ross Hutchins usurping Jamie Murray as GB #1 and Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski putting together an impressive set of results together including beating the Bryan brothers! Top 5 Brit Guys (doubles) this week:

world #31(+2) Ross 2389pts; 87(+6) Jamie 1112pts; 114(+11) Ken 766pts; 119(+5) James Auckland 726pts; 122(+12) Colin 712pts

That was another great week for Dan Evans

Terrific run through to the SFs in Lexington, Kentucky including beating the top seed and world 133 in R2 to take Dan up 25 notches to a new career high 249

Top 5 Brit Guys this week in the singles list: 3 Andy; 193 Josh; 202 James; 213 Alex B; 249 Dan

Better late than never (my motto!)

James Ward's great year got better last Monday when he nipped past Josh to become GB #2 for the first time

And Alex B produced a great run through to the semis in Vancouver to get his season back on track with a rise of 22 in last Monday's world list.

Top 5 this week: 3 Andy; 205 James; 206 Josh; 213 Alex; 255 Dan E

Big gap then to Colin at world #435

Big news tomorrow is going to be Andy moving up to #2

OK, it won't be Federer he overtakes ( again!); I'll put that down to Fed's unexpected resurgence at the last 2 Slams and Rafa's injury woes then; now if Andy were just to take the US Open this year and Roger go out early...

Late again; very late

One day after that last post Andy lifted the Montreal Masters to become world #2 which definitely merited a without delay with the top 3 Federer 11,040 pts; Andy 9,250 pts and Nadal 8,655 pts.

Andy was my pick to lift the US Open this time to break his Grand Slam duck and, possibly, become world #1 in one fell swoop if the Fed lost early enough.

Given my backing, Andy clearly had no chance; sorry folks!

As we now know, Andy had a mare in R4 against Cilic who had never beaten him before; and Fed did not go out early, albeit his Grand Slam total stayed on 15, losing the final to Del Potro in the fifth set.

Andy back down to world #3 again

Biggest climber in the GB top 10 this week is Colin Fleming up 78 to world #359 ; and he's up 10 in the doubles list too to be on the brink of the top 100 at #101; been upstaged, though, by his partner Ken Skupski who has broken in at #98

Top 10 Brit Guys singles: 3 Andy; 193 James; 239 Josh G; 252 Alex B; 302 Dan E; 359 Colin; 430 Richard; 500 Dan C; 514 Josh M; 525 Chris

Top 5 Brit Guys doubles: 37 Ross; 98 Ken; 101 Colin; 107 Jamie Murray; 116 James Auckland