goldenboy wrote: to be honest tho, llodra was always likely to rise up the rankings - he's a good player, prob better than sluiter, so maybe not such a bad thing in the long run!
To be equally honest, the rankings, on average do reflect the players' form and ability and this week it was perfectly fair that Alex should defend his points from last year, add two more and still have six or seven players around him do well and on balance be better than him on rankings, so that he ends the week 5 or 6 places lower than he started it
Delic and Phillippoussis have never played before. I'd make Mark big favourite to win that one, even on US hard courts.
Hopefully the ultimate "bad boy" of the tour - Daniel Koellerer, will do Alex some favours tonight. He's played Hartfield before, both times in 2003, and won both matches - the first one 7-5, 6-0 and the 2nd one 5-7, 7-6, 6-0
At the last, one competitor blinked before overtaking: Delic lost to Philippoussis
However, Hartfield won the big points in Bogota, and shoots past to join the other challenger winners Llodra & Philippoussis in a little group from 109 to 111.
Boggo ends the week at WR 120. not quite as bad as it could have been, but almost!