Davydenko Up, Kuznetsova down in tennis rankings

Double Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova dropped nine places to 27th in the latest world rankings published Monday after she crashed out in the third round of the Qatar Open. Kuznetsova lost to Lucie Safarova last week and fell behind the Czech, who climbed to 25th despite losing to Marion Bartoli of France in the Qatar quarters. In the men’s rankings, Nikolai Davydenko rose from 49th to 40th after reaching the semifinals of the Rotterdam Open last week, while U.S. veteran Andy Roddick fell ten places to No. 27. There were no changes to the top ten in the men’s or women’s rankings. Russia’s Maria Sharapova remained the world No. 2., while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is Russia's second-top player at 15. Maria Kirilenko rose three places to 22, and Nadia Petrova was unchanged at 32. Mikhail Youzhny remains Russia’s highest-ranked man at No. 32 after dropping a place, followed by Alex Bogomolov Jr. at No. 33 who recently switched allegiances from the United States. Russia’s fourth-highest ranked player, Dmitry Tursunov, fell 11 places to 63rd in the world.