Fernando is back in the top ten this week, thanks to a little help from Julien Benneteau. Benneteau defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week in the semifinals in Marseille, and because Jo couldn’t defend his title, he slipped in the rankings. So even though Fernando didn’t gain any points from his first round loss in Memphis, he re-enters the top ten! Fernando also has no points to defend this coming week (he did not play between the Australian Open and Indian Wells last year due to an injury) so depending on how Cilic does in Dubai, Fernando could possibly regain the #9 ranking in time for Indian Wells!

Points from last year’s Paris Masters have come off already, and Fernando has moved up in the rankings to 8th again.

In addition, his individual doubles ranking has gone up one position, while his team ranking with Feli has remained the same.

At the moment, Nando is 8th in the race to grab one of the two spots remaining at the Year End Championships in London.
7. Nikolay Davydenko, 3450 (Valencia)
8. Fernando Verdasco, 3030 (Valencia)
9. Robin Söderling, 2830 (Paris)
10. Fernando Gonzalez, 2780 (Basel)
11. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 2640 (Valencia)
12. Marin Cilic, 2205 (Basel)
13. Gilles Simon, 2105 (Valencia)
14. Radek Stepanek, 2095 (Basel)
15. Tommy Robredo, 2040 (Valencia)

As Nando no longer has any more points coming off, all he’ll have to worry about is adding to his total to try and qualify. A good run in Valencia and Paris could get him there, especially since Söderling, who was his nearest threat, is injured and skipping Valencia.

Congratulations Fernando! Thanks to his quarterfinal appearance at the US Open, Nando has passed Gilles Simon this week and grabs the #9 ranking! Vamos!

Nando will be taking the next couple weeks off to rest and recover from his injuries, so he won’t be participating in Davis Cup, but I’ll still make Davis Cup posts. Gotta support the Armada boys! Word from Davis Cup is that the semifinal team (Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Feliciano Lopez) are satisfied with the venue at the Polaris World la Torre Golf Resort in Murcia, Spain and the boys have been hard at work training for their clash against Team Israel (Dudi Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram) this coming weekend. Spain has won all three of its previous meetings with Israel. The last time they met was in 1996. Let’s try and get this to an even 4-0! Vamos España!