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Nadal pads lead as ATP No. 1-ranked player

Rafael Nadal, shown at the 2013 U.S. Open, has a 4,000-point lead over Novak Djokovic as the No. 1-ranked player in the ATP. UPI/John Angelillo
Rafael Nadal, shown at the 2013 U.S. Open, has a 4,000-point lead over Novak Djokovic as the No. 1-ranked player in the ATP. UPI/John Angelillo | License Photo

LONDON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Rafael Nadal collected title No. 62 and increased his hold on the ATP No. 1-ranking to 4,000 points.

Nadal defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov in Sunday's final of the Rio Open, completing a tournament run in which he dropped one set.

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Nadal has won 62 ATP events, which is tied with Guillermo Vilas for seventh-most all-time. Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras, who each won 64 tournaments, are tied for fifth while Jimmy Connors owns the record with 110 titles.

That pushes Nadal's rankings points total to 14,580. Novak Djokovic is second with 10,580.

Djokovic returns to the court this week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, his first tournament since a quarterfinal loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the Australian Open.

Even if Djokovic fails to repeat as the titlist in Dubai, he'll gain points on Nadal this week. An ATP schedule adjustment has both the Abierto Mexicano Telcel and Brasil Open 2014 this week. Nadal won both tournaments last year and is skipping both this year.

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There are no changes in this week's ATP Top 10 but 10th-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the runner-up to Ernests Gulbis at the Open 13 tournament in France, sees his advantage over No. 11 Milos Raonic shrink to 300 points and 350 over No. 12 Tommy Haas.

Gulbis improved to 5-0 in ATP finals by beating Tsonga Sunday. Gulbis jumps five places to a career high No. 18.

Marin Cilic reached his third final of the month and won the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-9), 6-4 decision over Kevin Anderson. Cilic is up four places to 25th in the rankings.

Anderson's ranking remains No. 21 and Dolgopolov jumpes from 54th to No. 38.

Djokovic leads a field that includes Top 10 players Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych (the 2013 runner-up in Dubai) and Roger Federer. David Ferrer and Andy Murray are the top seeds at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel and Haas is seeded No. 1 for the Brasil Open 2014.

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

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1. Rafael Nadal, Spain, 14,580

2. Novak Djokovic, Serbia, 10,580

3. Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland, 5,560

4. David Ferrer, Spain, 5,370

5. Juan Martin del Potro, Argentina, 4,960

6. Tomas Berdych, Czech Republic, 4,890

7. Andy Murray, Great Britain, 4,795

8. Roger Federer, Switzerland, 4,305

9. Richard Gasquet, France, 2,950

10. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, France, 2,785

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