ATP Rankings world No 1 race: How Alexander Zverev’s Miami defeat affects battle with Jannik Sinner
Jannik Sinner continues to be the big ATP Rankings winner as his world No 1 rivals are falling by the wayside one by one.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Sinner has been sitting at No 1 since June 2024 when he replaced Novak Djokovic at the top.
The 23-year-old opened a massive lead over second-placed Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz at the start of the year after he successfully defended his Australian Open title.
But Zverev and Alcaraz’s hopes of replacing the Italian at No 1 were given a big helping hand when he was handed a three-month suspension following his failed drug tests in March last year.
With Sinner unable to defend his 1,000 ranking points from his 2024 Miami Open title, those just behind him were handed an opportunity to start chipping away at his lead before possibly replacing him ahead of his return to action at the Italian Open in May.
Alcaraz stumbled at the Qatar Open while Zverev also suffered several early exits during his South American swing, but all was not lost ahead of the Sunshine Double and clay-court season.
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World No 3 Alcaraz then lost in the semi-final in Indian Wells and in the second round in Miami to deal his No 1 dreams a fatal blow ahead of Sinner’s return.
That left Zverev – who lost in the second round in California as the last man standing – but he has followed the Spaniard in exiting the Miami Open early as he lost in the fourth round against Arthur Fils.
The Live Rankings has Sinner on 10,330 points with the German on 7,645 for a lead of 2 685, but both will drop points at the Monte Carlo Open and Madrid Open in April.
Sinner won’t be able to defend his 600 points and Zverev will drop 200 points to effectively put the Italian’s lead at 2,285.
Zverev has the Monte Carlo Masters, Bavarian International Tennis Championships and Madrid Open before Sinner plays again and he will need to win all three events in order to move to No 1.
The two Masters events offer 1,000 points for the winner while the Munich tournament is an ATP 500 event so the winner gets 500 points.
Winning all three tournaments will give Zverev 2,500 points so it is mathematically not impossible, but improbable.
And with Zverev admitting he is not sure what the problem is, he will have his work cut out.
“I don’t know right now. I will have a conversation with the people around me, with people I work with, but right now I’m not sure,” the German said after the Fils defeat when asked about failing to make the most of winning positions.
He added: “I have been losing a lot of matches where I feel like I couldn’t control lately. Yeah, it was similar today again. So I have to look at myself more than anything else.”
