Serbian Djokovic won his 10^th title in Melbourne and, as a result, climbs from fifth to the summit.

The four-place ascent is a bigger step-up than the three places climbed by Spaniards Carlos Alcaraz last year, and Carlos Moyá in 1999, and Americans Pete Sampras in 2000 and Andre Agassi in 1999.

If Djokovic remains in pole position through the week of February 20, he will tie German Stefanie Graf's record for most weeks as world number one in history at 377.

Runner-up in the men's final, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece would have taken top spot had he beaten Djokovic but his straight-sets defeat sees him remain in third.

Djokovic begun his 374th week as world number one today after the record-equalling 22^nd Grand Slam title.

He has held the position for more than a year longer than any other man in history, with Switzerland's Roger Federer second on the list at 310 weeks.

After defeating Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the women's singles, Belarusian Sabalenka, who was competing as a neutral, returns to her career-high ranking of number two.

In her past three tournaments, the 24-year-old has collected 3,525 ranking points.

In addition to earning 2,000 points for winning the Australian Open, Sabalenka gained 470 points for winning the title at Adelaide 1 and 955 points for finishing as runner-up at last year's Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals.

Even with her recent success, Sabalenka still trails current world number one Iga Świątek of Poland by 4,385 points.

However, through Roland Garros, Sabalenka is defending 1,115 ranking points compared to Świątek's 6,270 points.

Rybakina enters the WTA top 10 singles ranking for the first time in her career after rising from 25^th to 10^th.

This makes her the first player representing Kazakhstan to break into the elite ranking bracket.