Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are very close in the standings and while they are both active in February, staff writer Shane Lambert argues that March is the pivotal month.
Rafael Nadal is at the top of the ATP rankings and at this point in the year he holds such a commanding lead that he's not likely to yield top spot any time soon. However the race for number 2 in the rankings is a different story as Federer only leads Novak Djokovic by 85 ranking points as of the January 31st rankings.
Federer should be able to hang on to his lead over Djokovic in the next little while as the Swiss Maestro has very few ranking points to protect in the near future. In February of 2010 Federer was idle and in March he underachieved at Indian Wells and Miami. That means there is room for growth in the upcoming months and he can increase his lead over Djokovic in terms of ranking points.
Djokovic, the 2011 Australian Open champion, has work to do soon however as he has 500 ranking points to defend in the month of February. The Serbian won ATP Dubai last season and he will have to defend that title just to maintain his current ranking points total.
Indian Wells and Miami both have tons of ranking points up for grabs as they are Masters events. The better performer in those tournaments between Djokovic and Federer will likely be the world number 2 as the clay court season nears.
The significance of that is that it would guarantee being on the opposite side of the draw as Rafael Nadal in any tournament played and that is certainly where you want to be in clay court events.
