POINTS

The top five players -- Del Potro must now be included in that group -- will have no less than three weeks off after the Open before returning to the ATP wars and, while most of them are signed to play at least four events, Rafael Nadal's plans are not yet clear.

He's recovering from an abdominal injury and is signed into only Shanghai (Oct. 12-18), Paris and the Masters Cup in London.

Here's a player by player breakdown:

* 1. Federer. Has 11,240 ranking points with 1,400 to defend the rest of the year, including 500 at Basel and 450 from Madrid during 2008. He'll reappear Oct. 5 at Tokyo, then play Basel, Paris and Masters Cup. He's currently 1,695 points ahead of No. 2 Nadal, but Nadal has 700 fewer points to defend. There are approximately 5,000 points left out there among Masters Cup, Paris, Basel, Tokyo, Shanghai and Valencia.

* 2. Nadal. Has 8,845 ranking points with 700 to defend the rest of the year, including 450 from Madrid and 250 from Paris. His scheduled return to play is Oct. 12 at Shanghai, but that's subject to his recovery from injury.

* 3. Andy Murray. Has 8,390 ranking points with a whopping 2,350 to defend the rest of 2009, including 1,000 for winning Madrid last year, 600 from Masters Cup and 500 at St. Petersburg. He's going to have a difficult time holding onto No. 3 by year's end. He's scheduled back at Tokyo with Shanghai, Valencia, Paris and Masters Cup on his dance card.

* 4. Novak Djokovic. Has 7,480 ranking points with 1,840 to defend the rest of the season, including 1,300 for winning Masters Cup. On his schedule is Shanghai, Basel, Paris, Masters Cup.

* 5. Del Potro. Has 6,825 ranking points with 1,200 to defend the rest of the season, including 250 at Madrid. He'll play Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris and Masters Cup.

If you subtract the points Djokovic and Del Potro have to defend the rest of this season from their current totals, Djokovic would still be ranked No. 4, but by only 15 points ahead of Del Potro, who has a serious chance to rise to No. 3 by the end of the year.

Charles Bricker