Hamburg - Serena Williams of the United States retained top spot in the women's tennis rankings issued on Monday by the WTA while Russian Dinara Safina drew closer to her despite a quarter-final exit last week in Indian Wells.

Williams remained on 9,432 as she didn't play in the Californian Masters event, while Safina improved to 9,121 points. Third-placed Serb Jelena Jankovic has 7,985 points.

Vera Zvonareva of Russia rose from sixth to fifth place with 7,090 points as she won the women's title in Indian Wells. Safina's conqueror Victoria Azarenka made the top 10 for the first time in her career, moving from 11 to 10 with 3,760 points.

WTA top 10 as of March 23 (previous ranking in parenthesis): 1. (1) Serena Williams, United States, 9,432 points 2. (2) Dinara Safina, Russia, 9,121 3. (3) Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 7,985 4. (4) Elena Dementieva, Russia, 7,671 5. (6) Vera Zvonareva, Russia, 7,090 6. (5) Venus Williams, United States, 6,842 7. (7) Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 5,184 8. (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 4,308 9. (9) Nadia Petrova, Russia, 3,762 10. (11) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus, 3,760 <# (dpa)