Ferrer passes injured Murray for third in ATP rankings

LONDON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- David Ferrer matches his career high by moving to the No. 3 spot in the ATP with Andy Murray's back injury bringing change to the rankings.

Ferrer is up one spot this week, replacing Murray at third.

Murray's injury has kept him off the court, costing him rankings points, and led last week to his withdrawal from the ATP World Tour Finals. Murray was the runner-up in last year's Shanghai Rolex Masters but couldn't play and protect those rankings points.

The only other change in the ATP Top 10 saw Jo-Wilfried Tsonga take the No. 8 spot from Stanislas Wawrinka, now ninth. That's a return to the order of two weeks ago.

Second-ranked Novak Djokovic, for the second straight week, won a tournament title and lost ground to Rafael Nadal in the rankings.

Djokovic beat Nadal Oct. 6 for the China Open title but the Spaniard passed him in the rankings, returning to the No. 1 spot by 40 points. Djokovic on Sunday beat Juan Martin del Potro to defend his Shanghai Masters title but Nadal, who lost a semifinal match to del Potro, extends his rankings points lead to 400 points because he wasn't in Shanghai in 2012.

Nadal, Djokovic, Ferrer and del Potro are all set for the ATP World Tour Finals but the other four spots are up for grabs. Tomas Berdych, Wawrinka, Roger Federer and Tsonga hold the points edge for the other four places in London with three weeks before the 2013 season ends.

Ferrer is the No. 1 seed at this week's If Stockholm Open while Tsonga leads the field at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna and Richard Gasquet, 50 points behind Tsonga in the Race to London rankings, is the highest ranked player at the Kremlin Cup by Bank of Moscow tournament.

The ATP Top 10, listing player's name, home country, and rankings points:

1. Rafael Nadal, Spain, 11,520

2. Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 11,120

3. David Ferrer, Spain, 6,800

4. Andy Murray, Great Britain, 6,295

5. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, 5,525

6. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic, 4,340

7. Roger Federer, Switzerland, 4,245

8. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France, 3,295

9. Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland, 3,240

10. Richard Gasquet, France, 3,060