Greg Garber, Senior Writer 9y

Coric, Harrison making a move

It was a retro weekend in men's tennis; vintage champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal won their events in Dubai and Buenos Aires and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic took a step backward.

Here's who's trending up and down after last week's three ATP World Tour tournaments:

Djokovic

No. 1 Novak Djokovic: The reigning Australian Open champion handled Tomas Berdych nicely in the Dubai semifinals, but was victim to a newly aggressive Federer in the 6-3, 7-5 final. March should be interesting because Djokovic is the defending champion at both Indian Wells and Miami.

Federer

No. 2 Roger Federer: Two years ago, it would have been hard to imagine this result. Federer, at 33, has reinvented himself. Swinging a larger racket and taking risks, he mastered Djokovic in an 84-minute match that was oddly devoid of drama.

Nadal

No. 3 Rafael Nadal: No, the Argentina Open field wasn't stellar; Nadal and Tommy Robredo were the only top-20 players in the draw. But Rafa won his first title since last year's French Open, besting Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1 in the Sunday final. After battling a series of injuries last year, Rafa seems to have regained some momentum as he works his way toward Paris -- and a possible 10th title in 11 years at Roland Garros.

Nishikori

No. 4 Kei Nishikori: The top seed in Acapulco won his first four matches, beating Kevin Anderson for the second time this year in a three-set semifinal. But in the final gritty David Ferrer -- who turns 33 on April 2 -- was an impressive 6-3, 7-5 winner.

Murray

No. 5 Andy Murray: The two-time Grand Slam champion lost to Borna Coric 6-1, 6-3 in the Dubai quarters. He won't be the last elite player to do so, but Murray's got to show more fight than that against a Lucky Loser from the qualifying round.

Berdych

No. 9 Tomas Berdych: Say this for the Czech star -- he beats the guys he's supposed to beat ... and loses to those ranked above him. Berdych won his first three matches in Dubai (Jeremy Chardy, Simone Bolelli and Sergiy Stakhovsky) but lost to Djokovic in the semifinals. It was 6-4 in the third, so not a bad effort against the world No. 1.

Coric

No. 61 Borna Coric: Came into the Dubai event with two ATP match wins for 2015, then produced three in a row after losing in the last round of qualifying to Fabrice Martin. Granted a Lucky Loser reprieve, Coric beat Malek Jaziri in the first round, then prevailed over Marcos Baghdatis in second round when the Cypriot retired with the score tied at 6-all in the third. Next Coric beat Murray handily in the quarters, but lost (predictably) to Federer in the semifinals. His ranking moves 20-plus spots and he'll soon be in the top 50.

Harrison

No. 109 Ryan Harrison: The 22-year-old from Louisiana was winless this year on the ATP World Tour after playing some Challengers and failing to qualify at the Australian Open. Then he qualified in Memphis and won a match over Malek Jaziri. Last week in Acapulco, Harrison broke out with a win against countryman Donald Young and then claimed his first top-10 victory ever, over Grigor Dimitrov. He followed that up with a win over Ivo Karlovic to reach the semifinals, where he lost to Ferrer in three sets.

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