THIS WEEK: By making the semi-finals in Sydney, Patrick Rafter has shot to number 2 on the SRI Rankings Top 50 (ATP #2 also). He, and a few other Australians, look like winning plenty of matches over the next two weeks. The other Aussie semi-finalist in Sydney was Peter Tramacchi, who leaps from 126 to 75 (ATP #144 last week). Richard Fromberg went one better, runner-up in Auckland, which places him back in the Top 50 (up from 62, ATP #73 last week).

The winners of the two tournaments were Karol Kucera (up from 28 to 23, ATP #25 last week) and Marcelo Rios (steady at 15, ATP #18) in Sydney and Auckland respectively. The Kooyong Classic, which does not count in the ratings, was won by Mark Philippoussis from Andre Agassi in a class field.

There's good form for most top players, and then there's good form for Pete Sampras. If he finds it, which I predict he will, then the best of the rest won't be good enough.

Some things I'm hoping to see at the Australian Open on the days I attend: Tommy Haas versus Albert Costa in the first round, with the winner to play Agassi!; Sergi Bruguera with a horror match against Kucera, Hewitt meeting the winner; Sampras destroy Schalken (ranked 33rd on hardcourts) on centre court to trigger a betting plunge.

Following are the computer-generated odds for the Open, plus the hardcourt rankings and your usual issue of the SRI Rankings Top 50.

ODDS	Player(s)
10/9	Sampras
5/1	Rafter
14/1	Chang
16/1	Rusedski, Bjorkman
25/1	A. Costa, Korda
33/1	Muster, Philippoussis
40/1	Stoltenberg
50/1	Larsson, Moya
66/1	Mantilla
100	Hewitt, Enqvist, Woodforde, Ivanisevic, Henman, Rios
150	Corretja, Bruguera, Pioline
200	Kuerten, Kucera
330	Fromberg, Dosedel, Santoro, T. Martin, Agassi, Medvdev

SRI Rankings Aus. Open Special. Hardcourt Only. 18th Jan 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	SRI Rank (all surfaces)	Comments
1	Pete Sampras	1426	1	Looks even better than '97
2	Patrick Rafter	1157	2	Very strong local challenge
3	Michael Chang	1120	4
4	Greg Rusedski	1068	5
5	Albert Costa	1065	6
6	Thomas Muster	1035	15
7	Jonas Bjorkman	1029	8
8	Carlos Moya	1022	19
9	Richard Krajicek	1017	3
10	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	1016	11
11	Petr Korda	1015	7
12	Magnus Larsson	981	12
13	Jim Courier	970	14
14	Chris Woodruff	945	25
15	Marcelo Rios	944	18
16	Thomas Enqvist	939	10
17	Sergi Bruguera	935	17
18	Goran Ivanisevic	931	16	No expectations this time
19	Karol Kucera	929	23
20	Mark Philippoussis	928	27
21	Felix Mantilla	920	13
22	Tim Henman	917	22
23	Boris Becker	897	26
24	Gustavo Kuerten	887	36
25	Jason Stoltenberg	887	21
26	Lleyton Hewitt 878 NQ	Based	on	two tourns only
27	Jiri Novak	876	29
28	Slava Dosedel	873	31
29	Bohdan Ulihrach	871	30
30	Michael Stich	866	42
35	Andre Agassi	838	38	Form is better than this
40	Alex Corretja	815	9	Possible early exit

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M40. 18th Jan 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Pete Sampras	1404	0	1
2	Patrick Rafter	1109	+3	2
3	Richard Krajicek	1099	0	11
4	Michael Chang	1091	0	3
5	Greg Rusedski	1079	+1	6
6	Albert Costa	1077	-4	18
7	Petr Korda	1035	+1	7
8	Jonas Bjorkman	1031	-1	4
9	Alex Corretja	1014	0	13
10	Thomas Enqvist	1006	0	27
11	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	995	0	5
12	Magnus Larsson	984	0	26
13	Felix Mantilla	983	+2	16
14	Jim Courier	976	-1	28
15	Thomas Muster	974	-1	9
16	Goran Ivanisevic	971	0	15
17	Sergi Bruguera	948	0	12
18	Marcelo Rios	945	0	10
19	Carlos Moya	929	0	8
20	Todd Martin	928	+1	61
21	Jason Stoltenberg	925	+1	50
22	Tim Henman	919	-2	19
23	Karol Kucera	908	+5	25
24	Andrei Medvedev	905	-1	23
25	Chris Woodruff	903	0	30
26	Boris Becker	901	-2	62
27	Mark Philippoussis	890	-1	17
28	Cedric Pioline	878	-1	20
29	Jiri Novak	875	0	55
30	Bohdan Ulihrach	875	0	34
31	Slava Dosedel	868	0	41
32	Magnus Gustafsson	858	+1	38
33	Tommy Haas	856	-1	44
34	Fabrice Santoro	844	0	21
35	Alberto Berasategui	844	+4	24
36	Gustavo Kuerten	844	-1	14
37	Francisco Clavet	839	-1	32
38	Andre Agassi	836	0	86
39	Mark Woodforde	832	+2	45
40	Julian Alonso	816	0	36
41	Paul Haarhuis	816	-4	72
42	Michael Stich	808	+1	64
43	Magnus Norman	808	-1	22
44	Thomas Johansson	783	0	37
45	Dominik Hrbaty	780	+3	39
46	Johan van Herck	778	-1	70
47	Todd Woodbridge	771	0	33
48	Brett Steven	771	+2	48
49	Byron Black	767	-3	75
50	Richard Fromberg	761	+12	73
51	Marcelo Filippini	758	-2	43
75	Michael Tebbutt	684	+51	144

Rating Winners:
Richard Fromberg	+46	(RU Auckland 98, 1R Sydney 97)
Karol Kucera	+32	(W Sydney 98, 2R Auckland 97)
Patrick Rafter	+18	(SF Sydney 98, QF 97)

Rating Losers:
Albert Costa	-38	(SF Sydney 97, QF 98)
Jonas Bjorkman	-19	(W Auckland 97, 1R Sydney 98)
Paul Haarhuis	-19	(2R Sydney 97)
Sergi Bruguera	-18	(2R Sydney 97, 1R 98)
Tim Henman	-17	(W Sydney 97, RU 98)

[ wo - walkover, wd - withdrew, ret - retired, def - defeated ]

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