ATP Rankings: Jannik Sinner maintains stranglehold; Felix Auger-Aliassime +6, Gael Monfils +11

Jannik Sinner is still sitting pretty at the top of the ATP Rankings with a comfortable lead over his challengers while title winners Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gael Monfils made impressive moves.
With no top-10 players in action in the lead-up to the Australian Open, world No 1 Sinner continued his dominance over his rivals as he maintained his massive 4,195-point lead over Alexander Zverev with Carlos Alcaraz another 625 points adrift in third place.
There is good news both for Sinner and his challengers as the Italian is assured of staying at the top of the rankings until at least the end of March.
But the chasing pack has a chance to make up some ground at Melbourne Park as he is defending 2,000 points at the season-opening Grand Slam and only another title run will see him maintain that 4,000-odd point advantage.
Sinner has now topped the rankings for 32 consecutive weeks and is 17th in the all-time list for most weeks at No 1 and will overtake Alcaraz on 36 weeks in 16th place in the coming weeks.
The top 10 is completed by Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Novak Djokovic, Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov.
But there will no doubt be major changes in the top 10 come the end of the Australian Open in a just under a fortnight.
Tommy Paul reached the semi-final of the Adelaide International and he is up one spot to a career-high No 11 with Stefanos Tsitsipas now sitting at No 12.
Jack Draper finished runner-up in Adelaide 12 months ago, but he failed to play ahead of the Australian Open due to injury and he slips three spots to No 18.
Auger-Aliassime was the man to capture the ATP 250 title as he defeated Sebastian Korda in three sets for his ninth top-level title. He is up six places to No 23.
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Monfils won the 13th ATP title of his career and first since October 2023 as he beat qualifier Zizou Bergs in the ASB Classic final and he climbed 11 places to No 41 while Bergs is up six places to No 60.
American teenager Nishesh Basavareddy came through qualifying in Auckland and reached the semi-final and he is rewarded with a 26-place jump to No 107.
ATP Rankings Top 20
1. Jannik Sinner Italy – 11,830 points
2. Alexander Zverev Germany – 7,635
3. Carlos Alcaraz Spain – 7,010
4. Taylor Fritz United States – 5,350
5. Daniil Medvedev – 5,030
6. Casper Ruud Norway – 4,210
7. Novak Djokovic Serbia – 3,900
8. Alex de Minaur Australia – 3,535
9. Andrey Rublev – 3,520
10. Grigor Dimitrov Bulgaria – 3,200
11. Tommy Paul United States – 3,195
12. Stefanos Tsitsipas Greece – 3,195
13. Holger Rune Denmark – 2,910
14. Ugo Humbert France – 2,765
15. Lorenzo Musetti Italy – 2,600
16. Frances Tiafoe United States – 2,560
17. Hubert Hurkacz Poland – 2,555
18. Jack Draper Great Britain – 2,530
19. Karen Khachanov – 2,410
20. Ben Shelton United States – 2,280