THIS WEEK: Three of my favourite tournaments this week. The anachronism of Newport, Rhode Island, on grass, was won by Chris Woodruff on the comeback trail. Woodruff was a top 20 player in the SRI Rankings Top 50 Men back in 1996, and this win takes him back into the Top 50, up from 67 to 43 (ATP #116 -> #91).
In Gstaad, Switzerland, Albert Costa (up from 31 to 26, ATP #28 -> #22) won the final over Nicolas Lapentti (up from 45 to 37, ATP #26 -> #21), who had eliminated the injured defending champion Alex Corretja (down from 10 to 14, ATP #8 -> #14).
And in the delightfully-named town of Bastad, Sweden, only
two seeds survived to the quarter-finals (which is one more than in
Newport!). Costa Rica's Juan Antonio Marin (up from 155 to 121, ATP
#97 -> #69) defeated local Andreas Vinciguerra (provisional rating
693, ATP #390 -> #205) in the final. In the semi-final he beat
another player on a comeback, ATP #104 Nicklas Kulti. Kulti looks
like returning to the top 25 this year. Last year's finalists were
the higher-profile pair of Magnus Gustafsson (down from 29 to 46, ATP
#62 -> #79) and Boris Becker (down from 32 to 35, ATP #54 -> #88).
| SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M97. 13th July 1999 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | Rating Points | Rank Change | ATP Rank |
| 1 | Pete Sampras | 1153 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Andre Agassi | 1134 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Patrick Rafter | 1098 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Richard Krajicek | 1052 | 0 | 7 |
| 5 | Todd Martin | 1023 | 0 | 8 |
| 6 | Greg Rusedski | 1014 | 0 | 10 |
| 7 | Gustavo Kuerten | 1000 | 0 | 5 |
| 8 | Yevgeny Kafelnikov | 995 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 | Karol Kucera | 986 | 0 | 13 |
| 10 | Tim Henman | 978 | +1 | 6 |
| 11 | Mark Philippoussis | 966 | +1 | 12 |
| 12 | Marcelo Rios | 958 | +1 | 11 |
| 13 | Thomas Enqvist | 946 | +1 | 18 |
| 14 | Alex Corretja | 945 | -4 | 14 |
| 15 | Felix Mantilla | 940 | 0 | 15 |
| 16 | Lleyton Hewitt | 932 | 0 | 32 |
| 17 | Younes El Aynaoui | 930 | +3 | 29 |
| 18 | Nicolas Kiefer | 924 | -1 | 17 |
| 19 | Jerome Golmard | 912 | +2 | 24 |
| 20 | Francisco Clavet | 908 | -1 | 23 |
| 21 | Carlos Moya | 903 | -3 | 9 |
| 22 | Dominik Hrbaty | 873 | 0 | 19 |
| 23 | Magnus Larsson | 868 | +4 | 63 |
| 24 | Tommy Haas | 865 | 0 | 16 |
| 25 | Fernando Meligeni | 865 | -2 | 30 |
| 26 | Albert Costa | 861 | +5 | 22 |
| 27 | Vince Spadea | 844 | -1 | 26 |
| 28 | Thomas Johansson | 828 | -3 | 20 |
| 29 | Michael Chang | 822 | +1 | 59 |
| 30 | Jason Stoltenberg | 808 | -2 | 60 |
| 31 | Goran Ivanisevic | 796 | +2 | 28 |
| 32 | Cedric Pioline | 792 | +3 | 25 |
| 33 | Sebastien Grosjean | 787 | +3 | 34 |
| 34 | Jonas Bjorkman | 786 | 0 | 36 |
| 35 | Boris Becker | 783 | -3 | 88 |
| 36 | Marat Safin | 781 | +1 | 37 |
| 37 | Nicolas Lapentti | 779 | +8 | 21 |
| 38 | Jan-Michael Gambill | 778 | 0 | 47 |
| 39 | Jim Courier | 776 | 0 | 41 |
| 40 | Marc Rosset | 773 | +3 | 31 |
| 41 | Wayne Ferreira | 759 | -1 | 33 |
| 42 | Juan Carlos Ferrero | 756 | +2 | 97 |
| 43 | Chris Woodruff | 748 | +24 | 91 |
| 44 | Andrei Pavel | 747 | +8 | 43 |
| 45 | Jiri Novak | 746 | -4 | 58 |
| 46 | Magnus Gustafsson | 746 | -17 | 79 |
| 47 | David Prinosil | 741 | -5 | 55 |
| 48 | Daniel Nestor | 739 | +2 | 64 |
| 49 | Thomas Muster | 736 | -1 | 85 |
| 50 | Stefan Koubek | 736 | -3 | 56 |
| NQ | Nicklas Kulti | 883 | NQ | 104 |
| 52 | Magnus Norman | 728 | +9 | 50 |
| 53 | Bohdan Ulihrach | 725 | +7 | 38 |
| 54 | Christian Ruud | 724 | +8 | 45 |
| 59 | Fabrice Santoro | 719 | -10 | 42 |
| 60 | Andrei Medvedev | 716 | -14 | 35 |
| 67 | Mariano Zabaleta | 692 | +3 | 27 |
| 121 | Juan Antonio Marin | 584 | +34 | 69 |
| Rating Winners: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chris Woodruff | +55 | (W Newport 99) |
| Albert Costa | +41 | (W Gstaad 99, QF 98) |
| Nicolas Lapentti | +30 | (RU def Corretja Gstaad 99, 1R 98) |
| Younes El Aynaoui | +27 | (SF def Rios Gstaad 99) |
| Magnus Larsson | +22 | (1R Bastad 98) |
| Rating Losers: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Magnus Gustafsson | -75 | (W Bastad 98, 2R 99) |
| Alex Corretja | -33 | (W Gstaad 98, 1R ret 99) |
| Boris Becker | -32 | (RU Gstaad 98) |
| Jason Stoltenberg | -30 | (SF Newport 98, 1R 99) |
| Thomas Johansson | -29 | (SF Bastad 98, 2R 99) |
| Andrei Medvedev | -27 | (RU Bastad 98) |
[ wo - walkover, wd - withdrew, ret - retired, def - defeated ]
... Darren O'Shaughnessy ... http://www.rankingsoftware.com ...