The race for Hanover

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski enter their final two events of the season desperate for points as they try to qualify for the ATP World Championship at Hanover later this month.

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski enter their final two events of the season desperate for points as they try to qualify for the ATP World Championship at Hanover later this month.

Rusedski, the British No 1, has held on to his ATP Tour singles ranking of sixth after reaching the Eurocard Open semi-final, and fellow Brit Henman is still 10th despite his second round exit.

But in the World Championship rankings, Henman is 11th and Rusedski 13th.

The Race to Hanover standings are based on a player's best 14 results during one season only, whereas the ATP Tour singles rankings are based on a player's best 14 results during the past 52 weeks.

Henman, who slipped two places this week in the Championship rankings to 11th, has 1,895 points while Rusedski rose three places and is sitting on 1,802.

Thomas Enqvist, the winner in Stuttgart, catapulted himself six places into eighth place. He now has a total of 2,223 points.

The Paris Open, which begins today - though Henman and Rusedski will not play before tomorrow after being given first round byes - awards 370 points to the winner, 265 to the runner-up, 160 to semi-finalists and 80 to players who exit at the quarter-final stage.

There are more points available in Stockholm the following week - 200 going to the winner, 145 for semi-finalists and 90 on offer for reaching the last eight.

Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov have already qualified for Hanover.

ATP World Championship Rankings: 1 A Agassi (US) 4242pts, 2 Y Kafelnikov (Rus) 3127, 3 G Kuerten (Bra) 2563, 4 P Sampras (US) 2332, 5 N Kiefer (Ger) 2322, 6 T Martin (US) 2319, 7 M Rios (Chile) 2245 8 T Enqvist (Swe) 2223, 9 N Lapentti (Ecu) 2114, 10 R Krajicek 2095, 11 T Henman 1,895, 12 T Haas (Ger) 1867, 13 G Rusedski (GB) 1802, 14 P Rafter (Aus) 1731, 15 C Pioline (Fr) 1727, 16 K Kucera (Slovak) 1633.

ATP Tour singles rankings: 1 A Agassi (US) 4281pts, 2 Y Kafelnikov (Rus) 3585, 3 P Sampras (USA) 2948, 4 T Martin (US) 2837, 5 G Kuerten (Bra) 2563, 6 G Rusedski (GB) 2501, 7 N Kiefer (Ger) 2322, 8 M Rios (Chi) 2304, 9 T Enqvist (Swe) 2223, 10 T Henman (GB) 2137, 11 N Lapentti (Ecu) 2126, 12 R Krajicek (Neth) 2095, 13 A Corretja (Sp) 1953, 14 T Haas (Ger) 1911, 15 P Rafter (Aus) 1782, 16 C Moya (Sp) 1765, 17 C Pioline (Fr) 1727, 18 K Kucera (Slovak) 1653, 19 M Norman (Swe) 1635, 20 V Spadea (US) 1629.