Absolutely right. 5 weeks is far to long without competitive matches. If Andy is serious about attempting the number 1 position this year he has to play before then. And giving the Davis Cup a miss may help as well (not sure how ranking points are calculated for Davis Cup though).
Nothing for those outside the World Group, apart from in the play-off (although a player could only win 15 points maximum there anyway, so almost irrelevant). Points are quite substantial in the WG though.
The live ranking site is brilliant, but I've no idea what it's talking about today (somehow got Andy on 7280 at the moment!) I expect it will sort itself out soon. Not sure why the ATP rankings page hasn't updated yet either.
Presumably they hadn't added on the 1200 points from Melbourne at that time.
Jonathan Overend said on the radio this am that Murray would be playing Dubai. Is this correct cos that means Murray would be able to defend his 600 points after all ?
Only defending 300 as Dubai is only a 500.
Can't see any other mention on this though. Could be Jonathan has just assumed he'll be returning, or else he knows something we don't.
This is what Andy said a while back:
“The last few years I hadn’t played particularly well in Indian Wells. After Australia this year I went over to train in Miami afterwards, which I felt worked well. I flew back to Dubai, then back over for Indian Wells.
“You know, that beginning part of the year, I was a bit tired for certain tournaments. So I decided after the Australian Open, I’ll go home for a little while and then go over to Miami and train and stay over in America for a while, get used to the conditions, try and reduce the travel at the beginning of the year.”
Also, he's not on the entry list:
http://www.menstennisforums.com/showthread.php?p=13140890#post13140890So unless he has a sudden change of heart and applies for a wild card, he won't be playing.