Q3 Rankings Update
1. Ben Faille (28, FRA) - 18,080
Faille is still perfect on the year - it's worth remembering that he's well off his peak level at this point. It just really doesn't matter enough apparently. He was banned from Madrid due to one of the Masters he skipped last year, but otherwhise it's been a clean run event after event.
There have been some very close calls, including a 5-set final at Roland Garros, but 50-0 at this stage of his career is just amazing regardless.
2. Ene Caballero (26, ESP) - 12,910
Caballero won in Madrid, and lost to Schleicher in the Rome semis. Other than that, it's been the usual 'reach the final, lose to the legend' routine.
3. Johann Przalowik (28, DEU) - 8,430
4. Jan Schleicher (24, AUT) - 7,520
Inching closer and closer to snagging the #3 spot from Przalowik. There's a big gap both up and down from here.
5. Davide de Laurentiis (27, DEU) - 4,880
6. Jochen Weigle (31, SUI) - 4,810
7. Goya Banqueria (27, ESP) - 4,490
8. Chris King (26, GBR) - 3,340
A whole lot of nothing changing with the second four.
9. Rory Buckman (25, USA) - 3,185
10. Jason Abercrombie (23, AUS) - 3,125
No further progress from these two over the course of the clay season. If anything they slipped a bit. The Top 10 was actually incredibly stable these last couple months.
35. Renke Von dem Knesebeck (21, AUT)
Knesebeck had himself a fine couple of months, winning three Challengers and getting a good draw at RG. He made the third round, and came within a set of knocking out
#8 Chris King. 6-7(8), 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 was the final there, really a bizarre match in which everything went against King until he turned it on.
40. Girish Raychaudhari (21, SRI)
Raychaudhari has moved up some as well, but definitely still trails his rival thanks to missed opportunities. Four challenger events for him, and he won only one of them - narrowly at that. One of the losses was to American
Scott Fielder, one of the top challenger players who appears to have recently graduated. The other two losses came in a QF and a SF, both of which were not complete shocks but definitely upsets.
You can see here how compressed the rankings are; there's tough matches at the end of every event, and competition is fierce at the moment to get into the elite level. Luck definitely plays a role, but it also looks like Girish may possibly be hitting a bit of a slump at a bad time. Knesebeck is further away than he was before the clay season, and looks like he may well win this round and get out of Challengers first. He just won a CH+ in Prostejov in which he was the 5th seed; we left it alone and figured he had a good chance of not making it through. Instead, he beat Dite, Fielder, and others and earned the big points. Can't do more than tip your cap to that.
Eight more players to pass, and the sooner the better. On paper, Raychaudhari is better than all eight of them and some up a little higher. But that needs to translate into on-court results.
58. Aparna Chandrasekharan (25, SRI)
Chandrasekharan continues to progress, up to a new career-high as well. One title, two finals and a semi for him recently.
692. Sushant Srivastava (30, SRI)
53rd in doubles.
174 (J). Ram Mayuri (15, SRI)
Mayuri won his first JG4, and is playing his second one this week. His practice weeks have been very productive lately, so there's no reason to push harder; just keep grinding away.