TENNIS in DEPTH.

Nikolay Davydenko, who has played sparingly this year, dropped out of the Top 10 in the latest men’s world tennis rankings, released Monday by the ATP.

Davydenko had been in the Top 10 — ranking as high No. 3 in the world in June 2007 — since May 30, 2005. He advanced to the semifinals in last week’s tournament in Barcelona, Spain, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal but still fell three spots from eighth to 11th in the world.

Nadal, who won for the fifth consecutive year at Barcelona, continued his iron-grip on the world’s No. 1 ranking. He has 14,890 rating points, well ahead of second-ranked Roger Federer (10,060 points) with Novak Djokovic (9,160) rated third and Andy Murray (9,050) fourth. Even though Murray was defeated in Rome by Juan Monaco, he will move past Djokovic into the #3 spot unless the defending champion wins the title.

There is a large drop off in rating points after that with world No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro totaling 4,580 and No. 6 Andy Roddick with 4,490.

Gilles Simon improved two spots in Monday’s rankings to seventh while Fernando Verdasco slipped one spot to eighth and Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga each moved up one spot to ninth and 10th, respectively.

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