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Djokovic No. 1 going into Australian Open

Novak Djokovic, shown at last year's U.S. Open, owns a 2,655-point lead in the world rankings over No. 2 Roger Federer as the Australian Open begins this week. UPI Photo/Monika Graff
Novak Djokovic, shown at last year's U.S. Open, owns a 2,655-point lead in the world rankings over No. 2 Roger Federer as the Australian Open begins this week. UPI Photo/Monika Graff | License Photo

LONDON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Novak Djokovic has a lock on the world's No. 1 men's tennis ranking as he competes in the first major tournament of 2013.

Djokovic, the two-time defending Australian Open champion, has a 2,655-point lead over No. 2-ranked Roger Federer with the third-ranked player -- Andy Murray -- nearly 5,000 points off the leader's pace.

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Djokovic opened his Australian Open defense Monday with a straight-set win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.

The Serbian star has been atop the men's rankings for 64 weeks. That's 11th most all-time. Stefan Edberg (72 weeks) is in the 10th spot and Lleyton Hewitt (80) ninth.

Federer has 10,265 points and Murray 8,000. Rafael Nadal is fourth with 6,600 but that total will drop because he's not in the 2013 Australian Open field due to injury. He collected 1,200 ranking points as the runner-up to Djokovic last year.

David Ferrer, who repeated as the winner at the Heineken Open in New Zealand last week, has pulled within 95 points of Nadal and is likely to move up after the Open. He is now fifth with 6,505 points.

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Tomas Berdych has 4,680 points for the No. 6 ranking, followed by, in order, Juan Martin del Potro (4,480), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (3,375), Janko Tipsarevic (3,090) and Richard Gasquet (2,720).

Last week's other winner was Bernard Tomic. The title he won at the Apia International in Sydney was his first TP championship and bumps him 21 places to No. 43.

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