THIS WEEK: In all likelihood, this is Marcelo Rios's last week at number 1 on the SRI Rankings Top 50 Men. Over the next two weeks he defends championships at Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, and anything but back-to-back results is likely to cost him his place.

I'll admit to being as astounded at Rios's promotion as the rest of you. This time last year, he was at 16 on the SRI computer, and #7 by the ATP. After his two tournament wins, he became ATP #1, while just tenth according to SRI. By Wimbledon, he was second on both charts after three further tournament wins. SRI Rankings, like the ATP, treats every match over the past 12 months equally - neither ranking is a particularly good indication of recent form. But on average, over the past year, the SRI Rankings computer finds that Rios has been the best player in the world. The judgement may be due to a stack of results more than 9 months old, but it still holds.

Anyway, this week the final at Scottsdale was fought by Jan- Michael Gambill and Lleyton Hewitt, with the American winning a close match after taking out Sampras and Agassi (who retired hurt). These two are the big movers, into the top 31. Hewitt storms from 49 to 28 (ATP #91 -> #65), while Gambill, on a larger base of matches and after a quarter-final appearance in 1998, is up from 40 to 31 (ATP #45 -> #31).

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M84. 10th March 1999
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Marcelo Rios	1176	0	6
2	Pete Sampras	1171	0	1
3	Andre Agassi	1137	0	9
4	Thomas Enqvist	1070	0	14
5	Patrick Rafter	1064	0	5
6	Richard Krajicek	1058	0	8
7	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	1032	0	2
8	Greg Rusedski	1022	0	10
9	Todd Martin	1009	0	11
10	Alex Corretja	996	0	3
11	Carlos Moya	991	0	4
12	Karol Kucera	986	0	12
13	Tim Henman	980	0	7
14	Albert Costa	938	+2	15
15	Mark Philippoussis	937	+3	16
16	Michael Chang	933	-1	39
17	Jason Stoltenberg	924	-3	37
18	Tommy Haas	923	-1	17
19	Magnus Gustafsson	923	+3	25
20	Goran Ivanisevic	921	0	13
21	Boris Becker	912	0	79
22	Thomas Johansson	912	-3	18
23	Gustavo Kuerten	898	0	22
24	Felix Mantilla	886	+2	20
25	Thomas Muster	882	-1	21
26	Younes El Aynaoui	881	-1	43
27	Magnus Larsson	876	0	51
28	Lleyton Hewitt	843	+21	65
29	Nicolas Kiefer	835	0	33
30	Jerome Golmard	827	0	34
31	Jan-Michael Gambill	827	+9	31
32	Jonas Bjorkman	819	0	36
33	Francisco Clavet	817	-2	23
34	Dominik Hrbaty	810	-1	42
35	Cedric Pioline	805	+1	19
36	Marat Safin	803	-2	30
37	Slava Dosedel	798	0	56
38	Justin Gimelstob	792	+6	67
39	Jim Courier	791	0	46
40	Andrea Gaudenzi	788	-5	58
41	Mark Woodforde	787	+9	50
42	Scott Draper	782	+4	48
43	Byron Black	782	-5	28
44	Bohdan Ulihrach	781	-3	29
45	Petr Korda	780	-2	76
46	Jan Siemerink	779	-18	32
47	Fabrice Santoro	778	+4	35
48	Wayne Ferreira	773	-3	24
49	Marc Rosset	771	-7	26
50	Vince Spadea	764	-3	40
51	Andrei Medvedev	763	-3	83
53	Fernando Meligeni	751	+8	62
61	Daniel Nestor	729	+9	84
65	Alberto Berasategui	721	-1	27

Rating Winners:
Lleyton Hewitt	+84	(RU Scottsdale 99)
Jan-Michael Gambill	+46	(W Scottsdale 99, QF 98)
Mark Woodforde	+28	(SF Scottsdale 99, 1R 98)
Fabrice Santoro	+21	(RU Copenhagen 99)

Rating Losers:
Jan Siemerink	-53	(W Rotterdam 98)
Andre Agassi	-16	(W Scottsdale 98, SF ret 99)
Jason Stoltenberg	-12	(RU Scottsdale 98, 1R 99)

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

blurb version 3.0