Madrid Wrap-Up and Week 20 Preview

There was a lot riding on that Madrid final. Both Raja and Rafa were very close to breaking Andre Agassi's record for Master's Series shields. Federer would have tied it with a win in Madrid, but Nadal broke it. That puts Nadal two up on Fed in the second-highest tier of tournament. But even though that was an important match for that reason, the consequences of this win won't be settled until after the French Open.

With this win, Nadal moves up to number two in the world again. Even though he is currently 3,150 points behind Federer in the rankings, Nadal has a serious chance to reclaim that spot after the French. Here's how it could go: Federer is at 10,030 points, with 2,000 that will drop off during the French. That puts him at 8,030. Nadal is at 6,880 with only 180 that will drop (that's what you get for losing in the round of 16), putting him at 6,700.

With a win, Nadal could go up to 8,700 points. If he does that, and Federer loses in the quarterfinals or earlier, he would only get a maximum of 360 points. That would put Fed at 8,390 - and squarely in second place. The reason that *this* is significant is because Federer is just a few weeks away from beating Pete Sampras's record of most weeks at number one in the world. If he doesn't drop to number after the French, he beats that record. If he does, then he'll need to regain the ranking - again - in order to do it. It seems almost a sure thing that he will, but it just got a lot more interesting.

Unfortunately, the week before the French Open in the tennis world is not quite as thrilling. The tournament in Nice has two of the current top ten players, Verdasco and Soderling, as well as some other interesting guys. Bellucci, Baghdatis, Monfils, as well as Gasquet and Chiudinelli. But there are also a lot of relative no-names at the tournament, so it's worthwhile to wait and take a serious look once we're in the quarterfinals.

The other tournament going on this week is the ARAG World Team Cup in Dusseldorf, which is a strange format, featuring teams from different countries squaring off. Isner and Querrey are there, but the U.S. actually seems to be fielding the strongest pairing, which is a bit shocking. Hewitt is there for Australia, and Berdych for the Czechs. Monaco and Zeballos for Argentina and Almagro is there for Spain. But this format is more of a mystery to me than the mixed doubles team tournament in Australia earlier this year, because it seems like Carsten Ball is playing doubles for the Aussies? I'm not sure. I'll take another look at it later this week.

One other interesting result from the last few weeks is the resurgence of Japanese player Kei Nishikori. Nishikori, who missed almost all of last year with injury, had fallen off the rankings completely at the beginning of April. He has now won two challenger tournaments in a row, beating four players in the top 200, and getting his own ranking up to 244. Expect him to get some wildcards in the American summer hardcourt swing, and if he gets a favorable draw or two, then he could make some noise. I'm excited to have him back, and I bet his legions of Japanese fans are, too.