Raonic, Haase Could Get Company From Compatriots in Top 100 in ‘12

Pospisil, Raonic, Djokovic, Nadal It can be lonely in the top 100, especially if you’re Andy Murray, Ernests Gulbis or Jurgen Melzer. They’re just three of the 21 players that are their nation’s sole representative among that ranking benchmark. But while some of them, such as Robin Soderling and Marcos Baghdatis, might not be getting any company from their compatriots any time soon, there are some national number-twos who could be backing up or surpassing their higher-ranked countrymen in 2012. Here’s a look at five of them. Izak van der Merwe Second-ranked player from South Africa behind Kevin Anderson Over the course of the past four years, van der Merwe’s year-end ranking has improved—from 302 to at the end of 2008 to his current, and career-high, 113. In 2011, the 27-year-old South African won two Challenger titles on hard courts, and made the finals of another. He also advanced to the quarterfinals at the ATP World Tour 250 event in Johannesburg, where his countryman Anderso...