New Delhi, Mar 3 (IANS): Australia's Ashleigh Barty and Serbia's Novak Djokovic have maintained their respective top spots in the tennis rankings.

In the latest WTA rankings released on Monday, Barty has a best of 8,717 points and is followed by Romania's Simona Halep on 6,076 points.

Switzerland's Belinda Bencic managed the only gain in the top 10 players, moving to eighth from ninth at the cost of 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova surged 14 places to reach 32nd and Briton Heather Watson moved up 20 spot to make the 49th spot.

In the ATP rankings, Austria's Dominic Thiem has reached a career high of third place. The 26-year-old has 7,045 points to overtake Swiss great Roger Federer, who is currently out with a knee injury and intending to return for the grass season from June.

Thiem has broken the top three dominance of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer for the first time since May 6, 2019.

Djokovic, who won the Dubai title last weekend to extend his unbeaten start to the season, remains on top with 10,220 points and is followed by Nadal who is at the second spot with 9,850 points.