Andy Murray won titles in Bangkok, Tokyo and
the Masters 1000 event recently to move ahead of
Roger Federer in world rankings.
Professional tennis went a little wacky this week.
In the new ATP Tour rankings released Monday, Roger Federer is out of the top three for the first time since June 2003 - back when he was young, Slam-less and sporting a geeky ponytail.
And for the first time since May 14, 2007, there was no Serena Williams, no Venus Williams, and no Kim Clijsters on the WTA Tour's top-10 list.
For the women, it's a case of sameold, same-old because 4½ years later, the players may have changed, but the picture is altogether similar.
Back in 2007, Serena Williams was coming back from having fallen down to No. 140 after a long injury absence, much like this year.
Venus Williams had dropped to No. 48 for the same reason, and only returned to the top 10 after the 2007 U.S. Open. She's currently outside the top 100, struggling with Sjogren's disease.
Clijsters, who had been ranked No. 4, had just announced her (first) retirement back then. She has not retired again; but with all the injuries the Belgian has had this season and her resulting lack of impact at the top of the game, she might as well have.
Here was the top-10 list back in May 2007: Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amélie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Martina Hingis, Nicole Vaidisova, Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze.
So much has changed in such a relatively short time. Four (Henin, Mauresmo, Hingis and Vaidisova) have retired. Two (Safina and Chakvetadze) seem inexorably headed in that direction.
Other than Sharapova, the rest have since exited the top 10 and have shown few signs of returning.
Of the six still active today, four eventually took advantage of the vacuum at the top of the game and made it to No. 1. Of those No. 1s, only Ivanovic and Sharapova won a Grand Slam title - but not since 2008.
If possible, this week's rankings are even more bent out of shape.
The top three - Caroline Wozniacki, Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka - have not won a major this season.
Two of them have never won one. Between the three, they reached only one major final in 2011 (Sharapova at Wimbledon).
Three others - Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur and Li Na - did win Slams this year, but they never even got a sniff at the top spot.
There's a fairly good chance that 4½ years from now, current toptenners Li, Stosur, Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli might not even be around. All will be on the dark side of 30 by then; Sharapova will be 29.
So the field is wide open for Kvitova, 21, and Azarenka, 22.
We'll look back again then and see if they, unlike those in 2007, took the opportunity of a lifetime and ran with it.
Meanwhile, the men's rankings far more accurately reflect the current state of their game.
And you have to attribute that to the fact that for the most part, the best players have actually played.
But Federer being shoved off the podium, so to speak, by Andy Murray's perfect Asian swing is still somewhat of a jolt.
In the absence of both Federer and No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the 24-year-old Scot won titles in Bangkok, Tokyo and at the big Masters 1000 event in Shanghai last week.
Murray has been No. 3 before. He's been No. 2 before.
But this is the first time he has ever been ranked ahead of Federer.
What does it all mean? Currently training in Dubai in preparation for that final European indoor swing that includes his hometown event in Basel, the Masters 1000 in Paris and the World Tour finals in London, Federer would probably say "not much."
Murray himself knows it's a good step, but not much more than that. "Right now, I just need to concentrate on winning. I want to try and get to No 1 in the world and to do that you have to win almost every week," he told Neil Harman of the Times of London. "That's what the guys in front of me are doing. I don't know how many people realize how difficult a thing that is to do."
Along with the strange autumn of Rafael Nadal, who lost a 6-0 third set to Murray in the Tokyo final and inexplicably went down in straight sets to the unorthodox German Florian Mayer in the third round of Shanghai last week, it sets up a blockbuster end to the season.
Djokovic and Federer are due to return in Basel, quite a bit fresher, it would seem, than either of their rivals.
So the men will end their season with a bang.
For the women, with the Williams sisters and Clijsters all missing from the WTA Tour finals in Istanbul, Turkey, next week, it will be more like a whimper.
In the new ATP Tour rankings released Monday, Roger Federer is out of the top three for the first time since June 2003 - back when he was young, Slam-less and sporting a geeky ponytail.
And for the first time since May 14, 2007, there was no Serena Williams, no Venus Williams, and no Kim Clijsters on the WTA Tour's top-10 list.
For the women, it's a case of sameold, same-old because 4½ years later, the players may have changed, but the picture is altogether similar.
Back in 2007, Serena Williams was coming back from having fallen down to No. 140 after a long injury absence, much like this year.
Venus Williams had dropped to No. 48 for the same reason, and only returned to the top 10 after the 2007 U.S. Open. She's currently outside the top 100, struggling with Sjogren's disease.
Clijsters, who had been ranked No. 4, had just announced her (first) retirement back then. She has not retired again; but with all the injuries the Belgian has had this season and her resulting lack of impact at the top of the game, she might as well have.
Here was the top-10 list back in May 2007: Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amélie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Martina Hingis, Nicole Vaidisova, Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina and Anna Chakvetadze.
So much has changed in such a relatively short time. Four (Henin, Mauresmo, Hingis and Vaidisova) have retired. Two (Safina and Chakvetadze) seem inexorably headed in that direction.
Other than Sharapova, the rest have since exited the top 10 and have shown few signs of returning.
Of the six still active today, four eventually took advantage of the vacuum at the top of the game and made it to No. 1. Of those No. 1s, only Ivanovic and Sharapova won a Grand Slam title - but not since 2008.
If possible, this week's rankings are even more bent out of shape.
The top three - Caroline Wozniacki, Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka - have not won a major this season.
Two of them have never won one. Between the three, they reached only one major final in 2011 (Sharapova at Wimbledon).
Three others - Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur and Li Na - did win Slams this year, but they never even got a sniff at the top spot.
There's a fairly good chance that 4½ years from now, current toptenners Li, Stosur, Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli might not even be around. All will be on the dark side of 30 by then; Sharapova will be 29.
So the field is wide open for Kvitova, 21, and Azarenka, 22.
We'll look back again then and see if they, unlike those in 2007, took the opportunity of a lifetime and ran with it.
Meanwhile, the men's rankings far more accurately reflect the current state of their game.
And you have to attribute that to the fact that for the most part, the best players have actually played.
But Federer being shoved off the podium, so to speak, by Andy Murray's perfect Asian swing is still somewhat of a jolt.
In the absence of both Federer and No. 1 Novak Djokovic, the 24-year-old Scot won titles in Bangkok, Tokyo and at the big Masters 1000 event in Shanghai last week.
Murray has been No. 3 before. He's been No. 2 before.
But this is the first time he has ever been ranked ahead of Federer.
What does it all mean? Currently training in Dubai in preparation for that final European indoor swing that includes his hometown event in Basel, the Masters 1000 in Paris and the World Tour finals in London, Federer would probably say "not much."
Murray himself knows it's a good step, but not much more than that. "Right now, I just need to concentrate on winning. I want to try and get to No 1 in the world and to do that you have to win almost every week," he told Neil Harman of the Times of London. "That's what the guys in front of me are doing. I don't know how many people realize how difficult a thing that is to do."
Along with the strange autumn of Rafael Nadal, who lost a 6-0 third set to Murray in the Tokyo final and inexplicably went down in straight sets to the unorthodox German Florian Mayer in the third round of Shanghai last week, it sets up a blockbuster end to the season.
Djokovic and Federer are due to return in Basel, quite a bit fresher, it would seem, than either of their rivals.
So the men will end their season with a bang.
For the women, with the Williams sisters and Clijsters all missing from the WTA Tour finals in Istanbul, Turkey, next week, it will be more like a whimper.
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