The main ranking story this week is that Robin Soderling has overtaken Murray to secure a top four seeding for the Australian Open.

The same thing happened last year but didn’t make much difference to either player with Murray reaching the final and Soderling bombing out in the first round. 

Looking at his record in Australia, it seems unlikely that the the boosted ranking will do the Swede much good. His record in Melbourne is absolutely abysmal with just two wins in five appearances.

He struggles badly with the heat and with defeats to the likes of Florian Mayer and Marcel Granollers he can hardly say he’s been unlucky with the draws.

The Brisbane title at least shows he’s in good form but means little in relation to Melbourne given that the roof was close for much of the week.

Another player on the move was Marin Cilic. He fell just one place after miserably failing to defend his Chennai title but he’s been on a steady slide since first reaching the top 10 last March and with semi-final points to defend in Melbourne, it’s unlikely he’ll be in the top 20 at the end of the month.

That’s about all of interest this week for a round-up that is made a hell of a lot more difficult by a “positions moved” column on the ATP rankings page that is still on its off-season holidays. Wakey, wakey!