Reports surfaced that Novak Djokovic's Instagram account was hacked by an Albanian group. The hackers, who are known as The 2ATeam, broke into the page of the world no. 1 and successfully uploaded a photo of the group's logo. But the ruckus didn't last long as Djokovic's account was restored recently.

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Amidst the hullabaloo, the 28-year-old remains in the spotlight as one of the most marketable athletes based on a research done by the London School of Marketing. The Serb, who joined the ranks of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, entered the list at no. 7.

In social media, however, Djokovic remains on top for being the most "Socially Marketable" tennis athlete. The research was compiled by Adobe Digital Index after gathering analysis on all social media tools including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Disqus among many. Likes, comments, and the number of followers were taken into account to come up with the numbers which put Djokovic above Federer who took the top spot on the other list.

"Tennis players are well known all around the globe," Adobe lead analyst Tamara Gaffney explained. "To create a list for more marketable on social media can help the sponsors when deciding on which players to invest on. Soon the social image will be a main factor in deciding which athletes to sponsor. Tennis is also the sport where players tend to have a stronger social media influence".

Djokovic, who is tuning up for his next tournament - the Rogers Cup in Montreal -, recently entered the official US Open list. The US Tennis Association announced that the 99 best male players in the world along with the top 100 female players will be playing in the final grand slam of the year which begins next month. The 2011 US Open Champion will enter as the first seed followed by Federer and Murray.

Before the year ends, fans in Asia will also get a chance to see the 9-time grand slam winner as he joins the Singapore Slammers for season 2 of the International Premier Tennis League. The franchise acquired Djokovic along with Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Nick Kyrgios, Marcelo Melo and the retired former no. 1 Carlos Moya.

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