ATP Rankings: Carlos Alcaraz holds off Novak Djokovic for now, Holger Rune up to career-best high
Novak Djokovic won the Cincinnati Open title, but Carlos Alcaraz secured the No 1 spot until after the US Open while Holger Rune continued his rise in the latest ATP Rankings.
There are only 20 points between Alcaraz and Djokovic in the ATP Rankings after the latter picked up 1,000 points for his title run at the ATP Masters event in Ohio last week. The Spaniard narrowly held onto the No 1 place in the rankings with 9,815 points while his big rival sits on 9,795
Djokovic didn’t have any points to defend as he missed last year’s tournament, thus he added a healthy tally to his total while Alcaraz – who reached the quarter-final last year – only picked up 420 points with his runners-up finish.
The end result sees Alcaraz stay at No 1 and on Monday he started his 34th week at the top while it also earned him the top seeding for the US Open. And 34 weeks will become 36 as most of the top players won’t be in action this week while the next big rankings update will be on September 11 – the day after the US Open final.
Djokovic, though, will be in prime position to pounce on the No 1 ranking at Flushing Meadows.
Daniil Medvedev remains well clear of the rest of the pack in third place, but there were a couple of changes in the rest of the top five as Stefanos Tsitsipas slipped to No 7, resulting in Holger Rune reaching a new career-high of No 4 despite his second-round retirement in Cincinnati.
Casper Ruud is also back up to No 5 while Jannik Sinner stays put in sixth place. Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe complete the top 10.
Former world No 2 Alexander Zverev moves up five places to No 12 after reaching the semi-final.
Outside the top 20, Adrian Mannarino moved up nine places to No 23 – his best position since his career-high of No 22 back in 2018. Alexei Popyrin was also a big winner as he is up 18 places after reaching the Cincy quarter-final as a lucky loser while fellow Australian Max Purcell is up 23 places to No 47 after he also made it to the last eight.
Borna Coric was the big loser as the Croatian was unable to defend his title in Cincinnati and, as a result, dropped 13 places to No 29.
As for British interest, Cameron Norrie moved down one spot to No 16, Daniel Evans sits at No 28 and Andy Murray is at No 37.
ATP Rankings Top 20
1. Carlos Alcaraz Spain 9,815 points
2. Novak Djokovic Serbia 9,795
3. Daniil Medvedev – 6,260
4. Holger Rune Denmark 4,790
5. Casper Ruud Norway 4,715
6. Jannik Sinner Italy 4,645
7. Stefanos Tsitsipas Greece 4,580
8. Andrey Rublev – 4,515
9. Taylor Fritz United States 3,605
10. Frances Tiafoe United States 3,050
11. Karen Khachanov 2,845
12. Alexander Zverev Germany 2,670
13. Alex De Minaur Australia 2,595
14. Tommy Paul United States 2,570
15. Felix Auger-Aliassime Canada 2,375
16. Cameron Norrie Great Britain 2,075
17. Hubert Hurkacz Poland 2,035
18. Lorenzo Musetti Italy 2,005
19. Grigor Dimitrov Bulgaria 1,690
20. Francisco Cerundolo Argentina 1,600
