Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz split Asia schedule as rankings battle heats up
There will be no Jannik Sinner-Carlos Alcaraz rematch at this year’s China Open as the two have opted for different events during the Asia swing.
The world’s two best players produced one of their classic matches during the 2024 final in Beijing as Alcaraz denied Sinner a second consecutive title with an enthralling 6–7 (8–6), 6–4, 7–6 (7–3) victory at the ATP 500 event.
That match was their last head-to-head clash of the 2024 season and since then they have met another four times with all of those coming in finals.
Alcaraz has won three of them – including at Roland Garros – while Sinner won at Wimbledon, giving the Spaniard a 9-5 lead in their H2H rivalry.
But the pair will not meet in China this year as they will be vying for titles at two different tournaments, as Alcaraz has opted to sign up for the Japan Open while Sinner will return to China for a third consecutive year. Alcaraz will make his debut in Tokyo.
After those events, both will head to Shanghai for the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 event of the year, while they are then expected to play in the Paris Masters before ending the season at the ATP Finals in Turin.
Sinner won the Shanghai title last year while Alcaraz lost in the quarter-final while the Italian didn’t feature at the Paris Masters before winning the ATP Finals. Alcaraz, meanwhile, lost in the round of 16 in Paris and failed to make it past the round-robin stage in Turin.
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Both tournaments are ATP 500 events so they will be competing for the same points, although Alcaraz will drop 500 points from his 2024 title run in Beijing while Sinner will defend 330 after finishing runner-up.
ATP Rankings Battle
The Japan Open and China Open will be the pair’s first ATP Tour-level tournaments after the US Open and it remains to be seen who will be at No 1 in the ATP Rankings when the Asia swing gets underway.
Sinner has been at No 1 in the official rankings since June last year, but he has been replaced by Alcaraz in the Live Rankings as he dropped 2,000 points as the defending US Open champion while the Spaniard dropped only 50 points after an early exit 12 months ago.
As a result, Alcaraz leads with 9,590 points with Sinner 60 points adrift and the latter will have to outperform the five-time Grand Slam winner at Flushing Meadows if he is it remain at No 1 after the tournament.
Sinner has 2,500 points to defend after the China Open after winning titles in Shanghai and Turin in 2024 while Alcaraz will drop only another 500 points.
