MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Australian Open champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams will maintain their No. 1 rankings when new ATP and WTA rankings are released Monday.
Federer, who beat Britain’s Andy Murray in the Australian Open men’s final in straight sets Sunday, will begin his 268th week as No. 1 and match Jimmy Connors, currently in third place, for total number of weeks as world No. 1.
Pete Sampras leads the career list with 286 weeks at No. 1, followed by Ivan Lendl with 270.
ATP projections have Novak Djokovic taking over No. 2, Murray third and injured Rafael Nadal dropping to No. 4. It marks the first time that Nadal will drop out of the world’s top three since his debut there in June 2005.
“It is not important for me, the ranking issue and losing a few spots—that’s normal when you are not able to compete,” Nadal said.
He has been cleared of a recurrence of the knee tendinitis that sidelined him for nine weeks last year. A small muscle tear sustained at the Australian Open, where Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Murray, will keep him out for the next month.
There will be movement on the women’s side, with Li Na becoming the first Chinese player ever to enter the top 10 when she reaches a career-high No. 10 following her semifinal run here.
Justine Henin, who was unranked and playing on a wild-card entry at her first major in two years, still needs to play another tournament before she gets an official ranking.
Williams, who beat Henin in Saturday’s Australian Open final, has extended her current stretch at No. 1 to 15 weeks. Projections provided by the WTA show Williams will begin her 88th career week as the top-ranked player.
Dinara Safina is projected to be No. 2, followed by U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki at a career-high No. 3, French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at No. 4 and Australian Open quarterfinalist Venus Williams at No. 5.
Projections also show Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, to be No. 6, followed by Elena Dementieva at 7. It would be the first time that Olympic gold medalist Dementieva, who lost to Henin in the second round here, has dropped out of the top 5 since September 2008.
Jelena Jankovic is projected to be No. 8, Aznieszka Radwanska ninth and Li at 10.
Li said after her quarterfinal win over Venus Williams that her goal was the top 10, but she might have to revise her expectations higher.
“So exciting, maybe I will have a beer tonight,” said Li, who lost in the semifinals to Serena Williams. “My goal this year was top 10, but it’s only January, and it’s come quickly.”