Andy Roddick improving his ranking — Getty ImagesWant to know when your rankings system needs to be revamped? When a guy that hasn't played a competitive match in six months moves up in the rankings despite, ya know, not playing the game he's improving his number in.

Deadspin has the report (thanks to a tweet from Tennis Stats) who noticed that Andy Roddick, the man that stepped away at the U.S. Open after losing to Juan Martin del Potro in the 2012 U.S. Open, moved from 42nd to 40th in the world despite spending most of his time this month at Pebble Beach playing golf, not tennis.

How in the world did this happen? Well, it's complicated in the sense that the ATP rankings are insane and make no sense. Basically the rankings are a review of the past 52 weeks of play, so Roddick, who won twice before Wimbledon last season, is riding that success in the rankings despite, ya know, not playing anymore, and two guys ahead of him (Viktor Troicki and Nikolay Davydenko) dropped down due to poor play.

It's so ridiculous that even Roddick

Rafael Nadal — Getty ImagesRemember back in 2010 when Rafael Nadal started sporting a watch on court and everyone wondered what it was? And then we found out the Richard Mille watch was worth $525,000 and we all gulped about as loud as you can possibly gulp when hearing that a watch someone is wearing to play sports in is worth more than what a lot of people will make in their lifetime.

Well, Nadal's wrist just got a little more expensive. Richard Mille came out with a new timepiece for the tennis player to sport on court, and it will ring in at a whopping $690,000. Seriously.

The initial watch was model RM027, which weighed just 20 grams, but the new model has dropped a gram of fat and somehow that makes it $100,000 more expensive.

This is from the Forbes report on the new watch ...

"Part of the point of the Richard Mille Rafael Nadal watch is to prove that the piece can survive the torture. A new system in the 2013 watch makes it even less prone to damage. Richard Mille rates the watch to work in situations of

Gael Monfils is one of those players you either love or hate, but even if you hate the Frenchman you can't help but love his hustle when he's really trying his hardest.

In the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in the Netherlands, Monfils was up against Juan Martin del Potro and while del Potro won the match 6-3, 6-4 it was Monfils who pulled off the shot of the match.

The camere angle is a little strange, but just look at the speed of Monfils to get this ball and hit a winner out of it. Seriously, just look at the contortion of his body when he gets to that ball. Monfils definitely will see your tweener and raise you a level of difficulty.

h/t Beyond the Baseline

The interesting thing about the men's tennis these days is that while we have plenty of characters, not a lot actually have Grand Slam potential. Every big event seems like it comes down to the same Novaks or Andys or Rogers and while that isn't great for the rest of the guys out there, it's always impressive tennis at the back-end of events.

And then there is Rafael Nadal. Only 26, Nadal has been sidelined for the last seven months with a knee injury that forced him to miss the 2012 U.S. Open and last month's Australian Open and while each final without him has been dramatic, there is still a feeling that something is missing.

Nadal returned to the court this week and won his first singles match in what seemed like ages, taking down Argentina’s Frederico Delbonis 6-3, 6-2 at the VTR Open in Chile. It was a solid win for a guy that has been away from the game so long, and while it's just one step in the right direction he moved on the clay surface like the guy we've seen in the past.

The beauty of the between-the-legs shot is that while it is incredible to watch, it rarely produces anything positive. It's a fun shot to try and hit when the match isn't in the last points of being over, but everyone enjoys a good attempt.

Lukas Rosol did that one better in his Davis Cup match against Stanislas Wawrinka. Going back and forth in an incredible point, Wawrinka hit a lob over Rosol's head, and as he ran back you could feel the tweener coming. It did, and the cross-court winner was good enough to make just about every highlight reel.

Sadly Wawrinka was able to hold off Rosol but that doesn't change the fact that this shot was pretty darn incredible.

h/t Beyond the Baseline

The great folks at Trans World Sport have been rolling out videos from the past of superstars that were filmed when they were kids. Tiger Woods was one of the first they pushed, and now we have Serena and Venus Williams as 11 and 12-year-olds.

It's a great look at the sisters at a young age, and at one point you learn that at the time of the interview Venus had won 63 of 63 junior tournaments and Serena was 50-for-52.

Watch it, enjoy it, and hey, you'll get to hear a ton of Richard Williams.

The five set semifinal match between Roger Federer and Andy Murray produced some incredible shots by two of the best in the game, but none were more precise, and as lucky, as this lob that Murray hit in the fourth set.

Federer seemed to have Murray on the ropes, but the eventual winner flipped the ball over Federer's head, who couldn't even go between the legs to get this one back.

The shot had the crowd on their feet, and was one of the cooler shots we've seen this tournament.

The 2013 Australian Open is coming to a close, but we here at the Busted Racquet wouldn't be doing justice to our namesake, and forefathers (I see you, Chris Chase!) if we didn't give you this compilation of the best racket smashes of the tournament.

You obviously have the Serena Williams meltdown in her loss against Sloane Stephens, but there are some pretty big names letting go of their favorite tennis tools.

A piece of advice to those that feel the need to throw a racket -- always helicopter it; a lot less chance of it breaking, and it's just fun to do!

h/t Beyond the Baseline