Hernan Gumy may have walked away with the Bermuda Open first prize of $14,400 with his victory over compatriot Guillermo Canas on Sunday night, but it is the latter who will look at the latest ATP rankings with the greater pleasure.

Gumy became the first man to win the tournament a second time, defending his championship of 1998 with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over the younger Canas, like Gumy originally from Buenos Aires.

Gumy also dropped only one set in the entire event, to American Jared Palmer in the quarter-finals, whereas Canas had three set battles with Christophe Rochus, of Belgium, and top seed Nicolas Lapentti in Saturday's semi.

But it was that victory over Lapentti that propelled Canas up ten places from 97 to 87, while Gumy was advancing a meagre five places from 95 to 90.

In the ATP Tour rankings, issued at the beginning of each week, points are awarded not only according to the status of the tournament, but the level of the opponent a player beats.

With Lapentti ranked 44 in the world prior to the Bermuda Open, Canas' victory over the Ecuadorean was worth 12 bonus points. And while the maximum number of tournament points that can be earned for winning a Challenger event, like the Bermuda Open, is 100, victory in a Grand Slam such as the US Open or Wimbledon, can net a cool 770.

And as the points for winning one of the bigger tournaments are bigger, so the earnings become more lucrative.

Playing in the smaller Challenger tournaments may enhance a player's ranking, but not be particularly rewarding financially.

But in the Catch 22 situation of professional tennis, ranking points are what can get you into the main draws of the bigger tournaments where accommodation and expenses are better than for those who have to qualify.

For example, Gumy picked up a total of 94 ranking points to accompany his Bermuda Open prize money. At Wimbledon last year he succumbed in the first round to Sweden's Tomas Nydahl, earned just the mandatory one rankings point, but still picked up only $3,000 less than for his exertions on the Island.

At the US Open, where he lost to eventual repeat champion Patrick Rafter in the second round, he picked up just 26 points but $18,000 in prize money.

In the French Open, played on his favoured clay surface, victories over Sergi Bruguera, of Spain, then ranked 22 and Gianluca Pozzi, of Italy, who was rated 69 at the time, boosted his points accumulation to 89, despite his subsequent defeat in the famous epic battle with Alex Corretja.

But he also earned his biggest purse of the year there -- $26,557.

Both Gumy and Canas have moved on to Orlando this week for the US Clay Court Championships worth a total of $264,000, with $37,000 of that going to the winner along with 140 rankings points.

And both got off to good starts, Gumy overcoming Australian Todd Woodbridge and Canas beating Austrian Stefan Koubek, number two seed at the Bermuda Open, in their first round matches. Canas then continued his good form with a victory over sixth seed, the Australian sensation Lleyton Hewitt.

Max Mirnyi, the tall, hard-serving Belarussian defeated by Canas in the second round at Coral Beach, caused the first major upset, ousting third seed Scott Draper of Australia.

Lapentti, who moved up three places to 41 despite his defeat in the Open semi-final, is this week at the vastly more lucrative Monte Carlo Open, also being played on clay, but which has a purse of $2.2 million.

He has already earned more for reaching the second round of that than Gumy did by winning the Open.

Others who made gains at the Bermuda Open last week include Nicolas Massu, a 19-year-old Chilean with a forehand to have even the staunchest of opponents running for cover when it comes off. He moved up from 203 to 170 thanks to his semi-final appearance against Gumy.

Quarter-finalist Dirk Dier, Tomas Behrend and Jared Palmer also made advances.

In doubles, the losing finalists Patrick Rafter and Paul Kilderry rose to 101 in the team rankings. Rafter is rated third in the world in combination with Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden. Individually Rafter is ranked tenth and Kilderry 101st.

Richey Reneberg and Doug Flach who, like Gumy won for the second year in a row, have risen to 79 in the world. Reneberg is ranked 11 with another fellow American Jonathan Stark.

Guillermo Canas: moved ten places up the ATP rankings, thanks mainly to his semi-final victory over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti.