LONDON, Feb 25: Argentine No 1 David Nalbandian climbed back into the men’s world top 10 at No 8 on Monday with his victory in the Buenos Aires tournament.

Nalbandian, whose highest rank was third in March 2006, won the Buenos Aires tournament for the first time when he beat fellow Argentine Jose Acasuso 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in Sunday’s final. He was 11th in last week’s rankings.

It was the 26-year-old’s first title of the year and eighth overall. The 2002 Wimbledon finalist’s titles include the Tennis Masters Cup year-end tournament in 2005 and 2007 Madrid Masters.

Nalbandian slipped to 26th last year due to injuries before climbing back to ninth at the end of 2007.

ATP world rankings (previous week’s ranking in brackets):

1. (1) Roger Federer (Switzerland) 6630 points; 2. (2) Rafael Nadal (Spain) 5980; 3. (3) Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 5070; 4. (5) David Ferrer (Spain) 2695; 5. (4) Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 2640; 6. (6) Andy Roddick (US) 2120; 7. (7) Richard Gasquet (France) 1885; 8. (11) David Nalbandian (Argentina) 1875; 9. (9) James Blake (US) 1710; 10. (12) Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 1685; 11. (8) Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 1670; 12. (10) Andy Murray (Britain) 1625; 13. (13) Carlos Moya (Spain) 1585; 14. (15) Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 1515; 15. (16) Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 1495; 16. (17) Tommy Robredo (Spain) 1490; 17. (18) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 1470; 18. (19) Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 1460; 19. (20) Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 1455; 20. (21) Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 1455.—Reuters