Monaco back in tennis Top 10

LONDON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Juan Monaco earned his fourth title of 2012 and a return to the ATP Top 10.

Monaco on Sunday added the Malaysian Open to championships at Chile, Houston and Hamburg, Germany to continue a very strong year.

He's won seven ATP titles in his career. The first three came in 2007 but he lost the next seven times he reached finals. This year, he's 4-1 in title matches, with Sunday's 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 decision over Julien Benneteau the latest in that run.

The win in Hamburg in July put him in the Top 10 for the first time in his career. He slipped back to 11th after three weeks at No. 10 but is again 10th after the win in Kuala Lumpur. His move up pushes John Isner to 11th.

That was the only change in the Top 10 this week. There are four of the highest-tier players -- including Monaco -- in the draw in Tokyo and three others in Beijing this week.

The only Top 10 players not in tournaments this week are No. 1 Roger Federer, No. 4 Rafael Nadal and eighth-ranked Juan Martin del Potro.

Federer is bearing down on his 300th week as the world top-ranked tennis player. He has 11,805 points, not very far ahead of No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who had 10,470. Andy Murray is third at 8,410 followed by Nadal (7,385).

David Ferrer has 5,960 points, which is fifth-most. He's followed by Tomas Berdych (4,965), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (4,520). Del Potro is eighth with 3,850 points while Janko Tipsarevic (3,185) is ninth. Monaco has 2,775 points and Isner has 2,610.

In addition to Monaco winning, Richard Gasquet won the Thailand Open Sunday but his ranking -- No. 14 -- remains unchanged.