Nadal wins but loses ground in rankings

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LONDON, April 23 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal won a tournament over Novak Djokovic but lost ground behind the top-ranked Serb in this week's men's tennis rankings.

John Isner didn't play but dropped out of the Top 10.

Nadal picked up his eighth consecutive Monte Carlo Rolex Masters title with a decisive 6-3, 6-1 victory over Djokovic. However, Djokovic didn't play in the tournament in 2011 so he wasn't defending any rankings points and wound up tightening his hold on No. 1 by 100 points.

Isner lost 150 points this week and that drops him to No. 11, moving Mardy Fish to ninth and Juan Martin del Porto to 10th.

Djokovic has 13,270 points and has been No. 1 for 44 weeks. Nadal, who has 9,715 points, is second. He's held that position for a record 232 weeks behind either Djokovic or Roger Federer. He's also been No. 1 for 102 weeks.

Federer is third with 8,880 points while Andy Murray (7,860) comes in fourth and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is fifth at 4,830.

David Ferrer is sixth with 4,160 but Tomas Berdych (4,080) is just 80 points back. Janko Tipsarevic is eighth with 2,820 and Fish has 2,725, which is 25 more than del Potro. Isner has 2,620 rankings points.

Nadal is the top seed for this week's Barcelona Open -- a tournament he's won six of the last seven years. Also in the draw are Murray, Ferrer and Tipsarevic.