[Horatio Caine]

Now the Race starts to get a little more interesting...in reaching the final, Roddick adds a handful of points to his total (enough for him to leapfrog Ferrer, into #6), but, more importantly, he improves his "best 5th" countable points to 20 (from 12, at the start of the week). Only Davydenko has a stronger set of optionals results ("best 5th" is 22 pts) and you'll notice that Ferrer and Blake are also on a "best 5th" of 15pts, respectively...meaning that each of the guys currently in line for the last 4 Shanghai tickets have little to gain from 3 of the remaining 5 weeks of the regular season (barring runner-up/title finishes). Immediate beneficiaries look to be the tightly-knit group of Wawrinka, Del Potro and Gonzalez, who would each be rewarded handsomely for any notable performance(s)...