By DPA,
Hamburg : Roger Federer of Switzerland maintained a healthy lead despite an early exit at the Indian Wells Masters in the men’s tennis rankings issued Monday by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Federer, who was upset by Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the third round of the Californian event last week on his return from a lung infection, tops the bill with 11,035 points from Serb Novak Djokovic (8,220) and Scotsman Andy Murray (6,835).
Former number one Rafael Nadal of Spain dropped out of the top three again to fourth place after a semi-final loss to Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, who went on to lift the trophy Sunday and shot from 26th to 13th place in the rankings.
ATP top 10 as of March 22 (previous ranking in parenthesis):
1. (1) Roger Federer, Switzerland, 11,035 points
2. (2) Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 8,220
3. (4) Andy Murray, Britain, 6,835
4. (3) Rafael Nadal, Spain, 6,800
5. (5) Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, 6,095
6. (6) Nikolay Davydenko, Russia, 5,335
7. (7) Robin Soederling, Sweden, 4,245
8. (8) Andy Roddick, United States, 3,960
9. (9) Marin Cilic, Croatia, 2,935
10. (11) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France, 2,915