Drew wrote:

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whats the ranking impact of murray reaching the qf...if any?

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Currently no change yet.   He went back to no 4 in last Monday's rankings and as we stand is still no 4.

With Delpo's loss today, Andy can't end the Australian Open lower than no 4, and he could also never catch Federer for no 1 ( only Djokovic could still  theoretically overtake Federer ).

He can finish the Australian Open ranked 2, 3 or 4.

Andy would overtake Nadal if he reached the final.

He would overtake Djokovic ( and Nadal ) if he won the tournament and Djokovic failed to reach the semi finals.

Oh, memories of the great "What If'" threads re Andy's ranking.  Used to be much more complicated though 

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 24th of January 2010 10:38:19 AM

lol, I didn't know they were so fondly remembered, I promise that when we get another top 75 player I'll start doing them again. :)

As for Murray's ranking, the first step is beating Nadal and I'm holding out a lot of hope for that, Nadal hasn't been at his best and Murray has. Everything can change in the next couple of days but the signs are good.

Clearly easiest passage to a GS quarter final except ( maybe curiously ) the 2009 French Open when he had one 4 set match, but actually played the same no of sets since Tipsarevic retired after 2 sets of their L16 match.

In each of Andy's other trips to QFs and beyond ( in 2 of the cases  )  he has had one 4 and one 5 sets match prior to the QFs with each of the 5 setters being fairly epic ( 2 coming from two sets down and the third the under the Wimbledon roof match with Wawrinka ).

Wimbledon 2008 :
L32  :  4 sets v Haas
L16  :  5 sets v Gasquet

US Open 2008 :
L64  :  4 sets v Llodra
L32  :  5 sets v Melzer

French Open 2009 :
L64  :  4 sets v Starace

Wimbledon 2009 :
L128 :  4 sets v Kendrick
L16  :  5 sets v Wawrinka 

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 24th of January 2010 01:41:27 PM

Andy is the first British man to reach the AO singles QFs since 1985. Others who have made it in the open era are:

[QUOTE=david1610;432309]http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2010/01/3rd-Week/Australian-Open-Sunday-Murray-Reaches-QF.aspx
ATPTennis Report on Andy ISner match including:
"Andy Murray became the first British man to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals since John Lloyd in 1985 (and only the fifth in the Open Era) when he beat No. 33-seeded American John Isner, 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-2, on Sunday."[/QUOTE]

I can only think of four Brits who have reached the AO QFs in the open era ... maybe they're counting JL as two because he did it twice.

Roger Taylor - SF 1970 on grass in Sydney - seeded 9, beat (1) Tony Roche (AUS) 9-7 7-5 7-5 in the QFs, lost to (12) Dick Crealy (AUS) 6-2 9-11 8-6 3-6 8-6 (this was the last year before tiebreaks were introduced at the AO)
Mark Cox - QF 1971 on grass in Sydney - seeded 16, beat (1) Rod Laver (AUS) in the L16, lost to unseeded Bob Lutz (USA) 2, 1 & 2
John Lloyd - Final 1977 on grass at Kooyong - seeded 12 - avoided seeds until the Final, which he lost to (1) Vitas Gerulaitis (USA) in 5 sets
John Lloyd - QF 1985 on grass at Kooyong - beat one seed (11) Tomas Smid (CZE), lost to (1) Ivan Lendl (TCH) in straight sets
Andy Murray - QF 2010 on hard in Melbourne - ...

As you can see, the previous four attempts were either ended by the no. 1 seed or involved beating him, and Andy is the first Brit to make the QFs of the AO since it stopped being held on grass.

Of course, back in the 1970s and '80s, lots of the top players didn't bother going to the AO, whereas this year virtually all of the top players are there.

I reckon so, you've seen Steven's battle for the top 5 graph, shows exactly who's earned what and how much needed to overtake, and he's totally up to date with it ( or at least was when I looked yesterday).