ATP Rankings No 1 battle: Jannik Sinner has a chance to take dominant lead over Carlos Alcaraz
Jannik Sinner returned to the top spot in the ATP Rankings last week after overtaking Carlos Alcaraz and now has an opportunity to increase his lead.
At the beginning of March, Sinner found himself 3,150 points behind his Spanish rival in the rankings with Alcaraz dominating the first two months of the year with back-to-back titles at the Australian Open and Qatar Open.
But the Italian has wiped out that advantage as he has won three consecutive ATP Masters 1000 titles, earning a maximum of 3,000 points as he didn’t have any points to defend from 2025 while Alcaraz dropped points in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo.
On the back of his Monte Carlo Masters title run, Sinner started this week with a 110-point lead over the seven-time Grand Slam winner as the Italian had 13,350 points compared to his rival’s 13,240.
But that lead grew to 390 points this week without Sinner lifting a finger as Alcaraz’s withdrawal from the Barcelona Open meant he was unable to defend his 330 points from his runners-up finish 12 months ago.
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And the Spaniard has suffered another setback as the wrist injury will also keep him out of action from next week’s Madrid Open, giving Sinner a chance to widen the gap at the top.
“Madrid is like home to me – one of the most special stops on the calendar – and that’s why it hurts so much not to be able to play here for the second year in a row,” Alcaraz said in a statement.
“It’s especially painful not to be there in front of my fans at such an important tournament.”
Rankings Impact
As Alcaraz mentioned, he will miss the ATP 1000 event on home soil for consecutive years so, on the upside, he doesn’t have any points to defend from 2025.
But on the other side of the coin, Sinner also doesn’t have any points to defend as he also didn’t feature 12 months ago as the Madrid Open was the last tournament he missed following his three-month ban.
The four-time Grand Slam winner is also yet to confirm if he will compete in the Spanish capital this year, as his team believe the Italian Open and French Open are more important, with Italian media reporting he will only make a decision later on Saturday.
If Sinner does indeed take part in the Madrid Open, then he has the potential to open a lead of more than 1,390 points over Alcaraz with a title run.
That would mean he would keep the No 1 ranking going into the French Open and he will also be the favourite to be top of the rankings after Roland Garros as Alcaraz is the defending champion while Sinner will drop 650 points after finishing runner-up.
