THIS WEEK: Firstly, hello to the many new subscribers to the SRI Rankings Top 50. There has been a lot of interest in the system since a favourable article was published in the Australian Financial Review last weekend, and hopefully the rankings live up to your expectations.

Our prediction for the Australian Open was partly successful, in that we tipped Thomas Enqvist to be the runner-up. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (up from 14 to 11, ATP #10 -> #3!) was always going to be a strong chance, but he is not one of the SRI Rankings computer's favoured players, rated 11th favourite at the start of the tournament. He plays a lot of matches, and while his best 14 results (on the ATP computer) are world-class, his many early-round defeats weigh his rating down. The final was disappointing for Enqvist (up from 5 to 4, ATP #21 -> #11), who seemed to lose his previously golden touch. We'll see if Kafelnikov's much-vaunted stamina continues through Marseille this week.

The SRI Rankings winners of the week include Paul Goldstein (up from 80 to 53, ATP #187 -> #126), who was lauded by the defeated Richard Krajicek, and Andre Agassi's bogeyman Vince Spadea (up from 70 to 48, ATP #44 -> #34). Goldstein is rated quite highly compared to his ATP ranking, which indicates that we should see more of him this year. Spadea has been ranked as high as the top 30 in 1996/7, without breaking into the ATP top 50 then, but apart from two wins over Agassi his recent form is not that hot.

Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti surprisingly made it to the semi-finals, where he was thrashed by Enqvist. However, his string of tough five-set wins do not improve his SRI rating greatly, and he moves from 106 to only 96 (ATP #91 -> #38!). You can see in that rise that ATP Grand Slam points are out of proportion to the rest of the tournaments.

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M79. 1st Feb 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Andre Agassi	1192	0	7
2	Pete Sampras	1182	0	1
3	Marcelo Rios	1152	0	6
4	Thomas Enqvist	1093	+1	11
5	Patrick Rafter	1060	-1	4
6	Richard Krajicek	1026	0	9
7	Alex Corretja	1012	0	2
8	Greg Rusedski	1010	+1	10
9	Carlos Moya	998	+1	5
10	Todd Martin	990	-2	13
11	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	986	+3	3
12	Karol Kucera	976	-1	12
13	Tim Henman	957	-1	8
14	Boris Becker	948	-1	71
15	Michael Chang	934	+2	26
16	Magnus Gustafsson	931	0	32
17	Mark Philippoussis	925	+1	15
18	Albert Costa	922	-3	16
19	Jason Stoltenberg	916	+1	28
20	Goran Ivanisevic	915	+2	14
21	Felix Mantilla	915	0	19
22	Thomas Johansson	909	-3	17
23	Tommy Haas	901	+3	22
24	Younes El Aynaoui	894	-1	36
25	Gustavo Kuerten	892	-1	21
26	Thomas Muster	887	-1	23
27	Magnus Larsson	873	0	44
28	Jan Siemerink	829	+3	20
29	Cedric Pioline	825	-1	18
30	Byron Black	817	0	33
31	Slava Dosedel	808	+4	57
32	Nicolas Kiefer	807	+1	39
33	Wayne Ferreira	807	+5	25
34	Jonas Bjorkman	800	-2	30
35	Marc Rosset	799	+14	24
36	Francisco Clavet	797	-2	29
37	Dominik Hrbaty	795	+2	43
38	Brett Steven	792	+2	93
39	Mark Woodforde	790	+3	60
40	Marat Safin	787	-4	40
41	Justin Gimelstob	783	0	74
42	Scott Draper	782	+2	49
43	Jan-Michael Gambill	776	+4	37
44	Andrea Gaudenzi	774	+1	47
45	Petr Korda	767	-16	76
46	Bohdan Ulihrach	766	0	31
47	Jeff Tarango	761	+1	53
48	Vince Spadea	757	+22	34
49	Andrei Medvedev	753	+2	82
50	Lleyton Hewitt	751	+3	92
51	Adrian Voinea	750	-1	72
52	Jiri Novak	744	+5	62
53	Paul Goldstein	744	+27	126
54	Hicham Arazi	743	-17	41
57	Alberto Berasategui	737	-14	27
68	Laurence Tieleman	711	+20	89
74	Daniel Nestor	689	+16	106
96	Nicolas Lapentti	643	+10	38

Rating Winners: (All results at Australian Open)
Paul Goldstein	+62	(3R+Q def Rusedski 99)
Vince Spadea	+53	(QF def Agassi 99, 3R 98)
Marc Rosset	+39	(QF 99, 2R 98)
Yevgeny Kafelnikov	+35	(W 99)
Thomas Enqvist	+28	(RU 99, 2R 98)
Tommy Haas	+22	(SF 99, 1R 98)

Rating Losers:
Petr Korda	-91	(W 98, 3R 99)
Hicham Arazi	-48	(4R 98, 1R 99)
Alberto Berasategui	-45	(QF 98, 1R ret 99)
Jonas Bjorkman	-44	(QF 98, 1R 99)
Cedric Pioline	-40	(4R 98, 1R 99)

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

blurb version 3.0