ATP Rankings: Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic resume battle for No 1 spot in Cincinnati

James Richardson 13 Aug 2023 11:01 AM

Carlos Alcaraz pleased during a match

The battle for No 1 between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic reaches a crucial juncture as the tennis roadshow moves to Cincinnati.

At the top of the standings, an incremental ranking points gain ensures that Carlos Alcaraz holds a 600-point lead over world No 2 Novak Djokovic when both players head to Cincinnati.

This means Alcaraz could still retain his No 1 spot even if Djokovic wins the Masters title in Cincy. However, in such a case Alcaraz would need to reach the final to keep himself out of range of the Serbian.

Alcaraz reached the last eight in Cincinnati last season which means he will drop 180 points on the rankings and a loss to Djokovic in the final would leave him just 20 points ahead of the 23-time Grand Slam winner.

Djokovic has to at least reach the final to have any chance of taking the world No 1 ranking off of Alcaraz. He will take the top spot if he can reach the championship match and Alcaraz cannot go beyond the last eight.

Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner is heading to Cincinnati on a high after clinching his first ATP 1000 title by beating Alex De Minaur in the final in Toronto on Sunday.

Sinner will move up to No 6 in the rankings, a new career high for the Italian who is now one of the leading contenders to take the title at the US Open, which gets underway later this month,

He stands on the brink of moving up two places within the top ten and taking the world No 6 slot next week, but he will have to win the Toronto Masters final to ensure that he secures the spot this week.

Sinner will leapfrog both Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud in the top ten if he can defeat De Minaur on Sunday evening.

In other changes to the top ten, Holger Rune also secures a new career-high ranking despite his failure to match his performance last term after Ruud dropped 270 rankings points this week.

Rune moves up to the world No 5 ranking and is out of reach of Sinner even after his win in Toronto.

Other players heading to Cincinnati with a bout of rankings stress might be Stefanos Tsitsipas, Cameron Norrie and Daniil Medvedev.

Tsitsipas is facing a potential tumble out of the top five and could drop as low as No 8 or No 9 in the world depending on other players results.

Tsitsipas was the beaten finalist at the Western and Southern Open last season.

Meanwhile losing semi-finalists from 2022, Daniil Medvedev and Cameron Norrie both head to Cincy off the back of losses to Alex De Minaur this week.

De Minaur, who is up to No 12 in the rankings, could snatch a place in the top ten for the first time in his career and become the first Australian top ten player since Lleyton Hewitt dropped out of the grouping in July 2006.

He is already guaranteed a big jump up in the rankings and will be world No 12 if he loses to Sinner on Sunday evening.