Even a tournament as small as Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur can have a significant impact on rankings, especially if you’re not ranked in the top ten.  Most players ranked around 30 or 40 in the world usually have one very good tournament, possibly a win or a finals, and then a few solid results, a few quarterfinals, and that’s often enough to earn the 1000 points you need to be in the top 40.

For example, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez won Bangkok last year, upsetting Nadal along the way.  He lost early to Donald Young, and now his rank has slipped 9 spots to 44 coincidentally 1 spot behind Donald Young who jumped 12 spots to a rank of 43.  Janko Tipsarevic moved to a career-high rank of 13 which now makes him the #2 Serbian player behind Djokovic and just ahead of #3 Viktor Troicki who is now ranked 16.

Andy Murray also moved within 965 points of Roger Federer.  He would like to do well in Tokyo because it may be difficult to defend his title in Shanghai, even without Federer.  If Djokovic doesn’t play Shanghai, then Murray’s chances are much better.

Andy Murray has a pretty tough opening round.  He opens in Tokyo against Marcos Baghdatis who just lost the final to Janko Tipsarevic, so Murray has to be ready to play right away, although he’ll get a few days since he reached the finals this past week (and Baghdatis, for that matter).  Even if Murray gets past Baghdatis (a guy Murray lost to in Rotterdam when he was having his funk earlier in the year) as he is expected to, he has to perhaps play Bogomolov, who he beat earlier this year after losing to him in Miami.  Murray should be OK until the semis where he might be expected to play David Ferrer.

Nadal’s first potential tough player is Milos Raonic who he might meet in the second round.  Raonic played some Davis Cup just after the US Open, but wasn’t 100% and had to withdraw.  It’s not clear if he’s 100% yet, so he probably won’t give Nadal too much trouble.  Nadal might be Haase or Tipsarevic in the quarters.  His seeding would project him to play Mardy Fish in the semis.

Djokovic was expected to play Beijing where he is defending champ.  However, he withdrew about a week ago, so a trio of Frenchman are among the seeds at Beijing.  Tsonga is the top seed.  Monfils is the second seed.  Simon is the fifth seed.  Two of the top three Americans are playing Beijing.  Andy Roddick, seeded 6, and John Isner, seeded 7th, are playing their first tournament in the Asian swing.  Tomas Berdych, who had to retire at the US Open, marks his return to active tournament play as the third seed.