Alcaraz retains no. 1 spot over Djokovic in latest ATP rankings

Carlos Alcaraz will remain the world’s top player ahead of Novak Djokovic by the slightest of margins , at least for the next three weeks in the latest ATP Rankings.

Alcaraz and Djokovic served up an instant classic in episode No. 4 of their intriguing rivalry last Sunday. Djokovic saved a championship en route to winning his third Cincinnati Masters in a final for the record books. However, he fell just short in his quest to reclaim the No. 1 ranking by a meager 20 points.

Alcaraz did the bare minimum he was required to by virtue of reaching the Cincinnati final. The Spanish young gun was guaranteed to hold onto top spot for the next three weeks including the 2023 US Open where he will be the top seed with 9,815 points.

Djokovic is 20 points behind in second place with 9,795 garnering a maximum of 1,000 ranking points for winning a record-extending 39th Masters title. It’s quite an astonishing turn of events considering how one point could have completely changed the course of the rankings permutations.

Had Alcaraz converted his championship point in the second-set tiebreak, he would have established an 820-point lead over Djokovic. The Serbian star will now be the red-hot favorite to take back the No. 1 ranking in New York where he doesn’t defend any points and will only need to win his first-round match.

There is movement in the world’s Top 10. Danish Next Gen star Holger Rune moves to a new career-high mark of No. 4. Alcaraz and Rune are the first two 20-year-olds to be ranked in the world’s Top 4 simultaneously since 1992. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas falls to 7th spot after losing 510 points for his failure to defend his runner-up points from 2022.

Alexander Zverev inches closer to re-entering the Top 10 after his semifinal finish in Ohio, making up five spots and rising to No. 12. Croatia’s Borna Coric was the defending champion in Cincinnati, but his second-round exit last week means that he represents the biggest drop in the world’s Top 30, cascading to 29th.

Australia will have four men in the world’s Top 50. Outside Alex de Minaur, there are new career highs for Alexei Popyrin (40th) and Max Purcell (47th) who both reached the Cincinnati quarterfinals, while Jordan Thompson rejoins the Top 50.