THIS WEEK: I'm writing this knowing only the first round results from the Australian Open. That first round has done nothing to dent the SRI computer's confidence that Andre Agassi will hold the trophy aloft in two weeks. The computer actually predicts that the ATP #6 (Agassi) and ATP #21 (Enqvist) will fight out the final.

ODDS	Player(s)
2/1	Agassi
7/1	Enqvist, Rafter
10/1	Kucera
12/1	Corretja
14/1	Martin
16/1	Rusedski
20/1	Krajicek, Korda, Henman
25/1	Kafelnikov, Chang
50/1	Stoltenberg, Kiefer, Philippoussis
66/1	Hewitt, Haas
100	Raoux, Gimelstob, Tarango
150	Schalken, Kuerten, Ulihrach, Safin

SRI Rankings Aus. Open Special. Hardcourt Only. 20th Jan 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	SRI Rank (all surfaces)	Comments
1	Andre Agassi	1216	1	Must be favourite
2	Thomas Enqvist	1188	5	The surprise runner-up?
3	Patrick Rafter	1161	4
4	Marcelo Rios	1159	3
5	Pete Sampras	1115	2
6	Karol Kucera	1103	11
7	Alex Corretja	1020	7
8	Todd Martin	993	8
9	Petr Korda	976	29	Too many distractions
10	Greg Rusedski	949	9
11	Michael Chang	947	17
12	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	933	14
13	Goran Ivanisevic	930	22
14	Richard Krajicek	928	6
15	Thomas Muster	914	25
16	Tim Henman	900	12
17	Hicham Arazi	892	37	Fell to Krajicek
18	Jonas Bjorkman	887	32
19	Carlos Moya	871	10
20	Lleyton Hewitt	858	53	Very impressive
21	Brett Steven	850	40
22	Jason Stoltenberg	845	20
23	Magnus Larsson	834	27
24	Mark Philippoussis	833	18	Nothing special here
25	Felix Mantilla	830	21
26	Cedric Pioline	830	28
27	Marat Safin	827	36
28	Nicolas Kiefer	820	33
29	Byron Black	813	30
30	Albert Costa	811	15	First-round casualty

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M78. 20th Jan 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Andre Agassi	1197	0	6
2	Pete Sampras	1186	0	1
3	Marcelo Rios	1151	0	2
4	Patrick Rafter	1067	0	4
5	Thomas Enqvist	1065	0	21
6	Richard Krajicek	1029	0	9
7	Alex Corretja	1018	+2	3
8	Todd Martin	1017	+3	13
9	Greg Rusedski	1001	-2	8
10	Carlos Moya	997	0	5
11	Karol Kucera	978	-3	11
12	Tim Henman	966	0	7
13	Boris Becker	956	0	70
14	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	951	0	10
15	Albert Costa	942	0	14
16	Magnus Gustafsson	939	+1	32
17	Michael Chang	924	-1	27
18	Mark Philippoussis	917	0	16
19	Thomas Johansson	915	0	17
20	Jason Stoltenberg	914	+3	29
21	Felix Mantilla	913	+1	19
22	Goran Ivanisevic	912	-1	12
23	Younes El Aynaoui	907	-3	39
24	Gustavo Kuerten	891	0	23
25	Thomas Muster	887	0	24
26	Tommy Haas	879	0	33
27	Magnus Larsson	869	+1	43
28	Cedric Pioline	865	-1	15
29	Petr Korda	858	+1	20
30	Byron Black	847	-1	28
31	Jan Siemerink	845	0	18
32	Jonas Bjorkman	844	0	25
33	Nicolas Kiefer	822	+1	37
34	Francisco Clavet	815	-1	30
35	Slava Dosedel	806	0	60
36	Marat Safin	795	+2	47
37	Hicham Arazi	791	0	35
38	Wayne Ferreira	791	-2	26
39	Dominik Hrbaty	790	+2	42
40	Brett Steven	789	+28	90
41	Justin Gimelstob	787	-1	80
42	Mark Woodforde	784	+1	64
43	Alberto Berasategui	782	+1	22
44	Scott Draper	777	-2	46
45	Andrea Gaudenzi	776	+3	41
46	Bohdan Ulihrach	772	-7	34
47	Jan-Michael Gambill	770	-2	38
48	Jeff Tarango	765	-1	66
49	Marc Rosset	760	+7	31
50	Adrian Voinea	757	+3	71
51	Andrei Medvedev	756	-1	81
52	Mariano Zabaleta	752	-3	54
53	Lleyton Hewitt	751	+13	101
54	Jerome Golmard	750	-8	50
60	Sjeng Schalken	729	+31	49
67	Mariano Puerta	712	+2	36

Rating Winners:
Brett Steven	+88	(SF Auckland 99, 2R 98)
Sjeng Schalken	+68	(W Auckland 99, 1R Sydney 98)
Lleyton Hewitt	+42	(QF Sydney 99, 2R 98)
Todd Martin	+40	(W Sydney 99, QF 98)
Alex Corretja	+31	(RU Sydney 99, 1R 98)

Rating Losers:
Byron Black	-12	(SF Auckland 98, 1R 99)
Francisco Clavet	-11	(2R Sydney 98, 1R 99)
Jerome Golmard	-11	(1R ret Sydney 99)
Karol Kucera	-10	(W Sydney 98, SF 99)

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

blurb version 3.0