Carlos Alcaraz vs Alexander Zverev’s battle for No 2 spot ahead of French Open
Carlos Alcaraz has returned to No 2 in the ATP Rankings, but his battle with Alexander Zverev to be the second seed at the French Open is not over.
On the back of winning his maiden Monte Carlo Masters title over the weekend, Alcaraz overtook the German as he returned to second place for the first time since last October.
The Spaniard has a very small lead ahead of this week’s ATP 500 events, but there is good news for both as they don’t have any points to defend from 2024.
Alcaraz didn’t defend his Barcelona Open title last year due to injury while Zverev’s run to the quarter-finals at the BMW Open is considered one of his “non-countable” events.
Players who participate in more tournaments than the required 19 (or 20 if you feature at the ATP Finals) will have their results from the “extra” (or non-countable) events excluded from the rankings calculations.
The BMW Open is one such event for Zverev so he won’t drop any points this week and he has already made up some ground after winning his opening match on home soil.
Live Rankings on April 15
1. Jannik Sinner – 9,930
2. Carlos Alcaraz – 7,720
3. Alexander Zverev – 7,595
Zverev can accumulate a maximum of 8,045 points if he wins the German event, but Alcaraz can maintain his slender lead as he will move to 8,210 points if he wins the Barcelona Open.
They will most likely still be neck-and-neck after this week’s tournaments, but the Madrid Open is likely to decide who will be No 2 ahead of the French Open.
Alcaraz will drop 200 points from his quarter-final run last year while Zverev will only drop 100, but the pressure is on the latter as he needs to get a buffer ahead of the Italian Open.
Nothing short of a deep run will help the Zverev cause as he is the defending champion in Rome so will drop 1,000 points while the Spaniard didn’t compete last year.
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As things stand (excluding results from the remainder of the Barcelona Open/BWM Open), Alcaraz will be on 7,520 points (current total minus 200 from Madrid).
Zverev will be on 6,495 (current total minus 100 from Madrid and 1,000 from Rome) when the points from the next three events are dropped.
But both will be able to add to their tallies in the next month as they can earn a maximum of 2,500 points (500 at Barcelona/Munich, 1,000 at Madrid and 1,000 at Rome).
Zverev’s ceiling is 8,995 points if he wins all three events, but then he needs to hope Alcaraz exits early.
The battle to be the second seed at Roland Garros is crucial as it means they will avoid world No 1 Jannik Sinner in the semi-final as the Italian is already assured of being the top seed.
But the pressure will certainly be transferred to Alcaraz at the clay-court Grand Slam as he is the defending champion after beating Zverev in last year’s final.
