ATP Rankings: Novak Djokovic five weeks away from astonishing record after Carlos Alcaraz’s Shanghai slip-up
Novak Djokovic has the 400-week No 1 ranking milestone in his sights after Carlos Alcaraz missed a golden opportunity to close the gap in the ATP Rankings.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner started his 395th week at No 1 on Monday and all he needs to do is outperform Alcaraz at the Paris Masters and ATP Finals to reach that magical 400-week mark before the year is out.
With Djokovic opting to skip last week’s Shanghai Masters, Alcaraz had a chance to chip away at the Serbian’s lead as 1,000 points were on offer to the winner of the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The Spaniard, though, was stunned by Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16 and, as a result, he picked up just 90 points.
However, there was a 590-point swing as Djokovic dropped 500 points following his Astana Open title run last year, but the gap remains a massive 2,240.
Djokovic sits on 11,045 points compared to Alcaraz’s 8,805 and neither will be in action this week with the latter set to play at the Swiss Indoors in Basel next week while the Serbian will make his comeback at the Paris Masters at the end of October.
The race for both the No 1 ranking and the year-end No 1 ranking look set to be settled at the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin from November 13-19.
Daniil Medvedev also missed out on closing the gap to Alcaraz at No 2 as he lost in the third round in Shanghai, but fellow Russian Andrey Rublev moved up two places to No 5 after finishing runner-up to Hubert Hurkacz.
Pole Hurkacz jumped six places to No 11 on the back of his title run while there was also a boost for Dimitrov as moved up three places to No 16. Ben Shelton is up to a new career-high of No 19 after his quarter-final run in Shanghai.
The biggest mover in the top 100 was Fabian Marozsan as he surged up 26 places to a career-best No 65 after reaching the quarter-final in China.
In terms of British interest, Cameron Norrie leads the way although he dropped two places and now sits at No 18. There are now five Brits in the top 100 as Norrie is followed by Dan Evans (34), Andy Murray (39), Jack Draper (88) and Liam Broady (100).
ATP Rankings Top 20
1. Novak Djokovic Serbia 11,045 points
2. Carlos Alcaraz Spain 8,805
3. Daniil Medvedev – 7,355
4. Jannik Sinner Italy 5,000
5. Andrey Rublev – 4,765
6. Holger Rune Denmark 4,605
7. Stefanos Tsitsipas Greece 4,360
8. Casper Ruud Norway 3,685
9. Alexander Zverev Germany 3,460
10. Taylor Fritz United States 3,410
11. Hubert Hurkacz Poland 2,900
12. Tommy Paul United States 2,705
13. Alex De Minaur Australia 2,650
14. Frances Tiafoe United States 2,355
15. Karen Khachanov 2,340
16. Grigor Dimitrov Bulgaria 2,195
17. Felix Auger-Aliassime Canada 2,100
18. Cameron Norrie Great Britain 1,985
19. Ben Shelton United States 1,865
20. Lorenzo Musetti Italy 1,845
