Carlos Alcaraz winning two Slams and not being No 2 in rankings shows ‘there’s a glitch in the system’
The ATP Rankings system has come under scrutiny after Carlos Alcaraz won two Grand Slams in 2024, but failed to finish inside the top two of the rankings.
Jannik Sinner was the undisputed No 1 this year as he won eight titles – including the Australian Open, US Open and ATP Finals – to finish with an incredible 11,830 ranking points.
But it was a close battle for second place between Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev and it was the latter who closed the year at No 2 with 7,915 points while the Spaniard finished 905 points adrift in third place.
Alcaraz, though, won two Grand Slams (French Open and Wimbledon), one ATP Masters 1000 event (Indian Wells) and one ATP 500 tournament (China Open) – while Zverev won two ATP Masters tournaments (Italian Open and Paris Masters).
Zverev also finished runner-up at Roland Garros and reached the semi-final of the Australian Open and ATP Finals while Alcaraz lost in the quarters in Melbourne and the round-robin phase in Turin.
Legendary coach Paul Annacone – who mentored the likes of Roger Federer and Pete Sampras – was asked about the rankings on Tennis Channel’s Inside-In podcast, he replied: “In my opinion, Sasha Zverev has had an amazing year.
“The points don’t lie. He played an unbelievable amount of tennis, but if you win two majors and you’re not ranked No 2 in the world, that to me says that there’s a glitch in the system.”
The ATP points system is as follows: 2,000 for a Grand Slam title and 1,300 for a runner’s-up finish while those who win an ATP Masters 1000 event claim 1,000 points, an ATP 500 title will earn you 500 points and an ATP 250 event brings in 250 points.
Of course, the points are reduced the earlier you exit a tournament.
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Despite his two Grand Slams this year, Annacone feels Alcaraz had a “blip” during the campaign, which is way Sinner was able to run away at most tournaments.
“It takes great players to push each other and we are pretty fortunate after the last couple of decades to have two young guys at the top because it is going to be a lot of fun to watch them push each other,” he said.
Alcaraz is not as consistent as Sinner is right now, but he has beaten him three times this year so he knows what to do in big moments otherwise he wouldn’t have four majors already.
“I think what is amazing is Carlos won two majors this year and didn’t play great in either one of those majors.
“I was court side for his Roland Garros semi-final and I saw all of his Wimbledon matches, he didn’t play poorly, but for him, how skilled he is, he didn’t play great.
“He is managing that level well enough to win majors, but periodically away from the majors we have seen a couple of blips on the radar.”
