Carlos Alcaraz adds maiden event to his schedule as he starts charge to regain world No 1 ranking
Carlos Alcaraz will headline the returning China Open later in September with nine of the top 10 players in the ATP Rankings signing up for the tournament.
The only top 10 star missing from the impressive line-up is 23-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.
For Alcaraz, it will be the first time that he competes in the Beijing ATP 500 event as the tournament has been absent from the calendar the past four years due to the Covid-19 travelling restrictions.
It will also be the Spaniard’s first official tournament after the US Open and will give him an opportunity to start his campaign to regain the world No 1 ranking from Djokovic.
Alcaraz has topped the rankings since June 26, but he will be replaced by the Serbian after the US Open and the only question that needs to be answered is “how big will Djokovic’s points advantage be after the tournament?”
If Djokovic ends up winning the title at Flushing Meadows then the gap could be more than 2,700 points, but Alcaraz had made it clear that he will try to regain top spot from the tennis great as soon as possible.
“Right now it’s a goal for me honestly. I said before that we are having a really good battle for the No. 1, Novak and I,” he said.
“I knew that he was going to recover the No 1 after US Open. When the tournament is over, I will try to recover as soon as possible. That’s my goal. I am working for that.
“The season has a lot of tournaments until the year is over. I’ll try to recover it before the year end.”
Only 500 points will be on offer for the winner in Beijing, but a title win will help Alcaraz to chip away at the lead.
World No 3 Medvedev is projected to be the second seed and will be followed by Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner, Stefanos Tsitispas, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe.
Former world No 2 Alexander Zverev as well as British pair Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans will also feature.
As things stand, there are no former champions in the draw as the most recent winners Dominic Thiem (2019), Nikoloz Basilashvili (2020), Rafael Nadal (2017) and Andy Murray (2016) have not signed up.
Djokovic, a six-time Beijing champion whose last title came in 2016, could still accept a wildcard entry.
