Jannik Sinner comment suggests he is ready to challenge Carlos Alcaraz for year-end No 1 title
The battle to finish the season at No 1 in ATP Rankings is far from over if Jannik Sinner’s latest comments are anything to go by with his fight with Carlos Alcaraz set to go down to the wire.
Following his incredible post-Wimbledon run that saw him win the Cincinnati Open, US Open and the Japan Open, Alcaraz opened a 2,490-point lead over his Italian rival in ATP Rankings Race To Turin, which is a barometer for the year-end No 1 ranking.
With only a handful of tournaments left, many believe the gap is too big for Sinner with some suggesting he had given up on catching the Spaniard and would skip the final ATP 1000 Masters event of the season in Paris.
But that is not the case as the Italian – who is currently in action at the Vienna Open – has now confirmed he will head to France after the ATP 500 tournament in Austria before bringing the curtain down on his season at the ATP Finals in Turin.
“After Vienna I’ll play in Paris. The season is almost over, just three tournaments left — it’s time to give the final push,” he said after opening his Vienna campaign with another 58-minute 6-0, 6-2 victory over Daniel Altmaier.
With a maximum of 3,000 points available (500 in Vienna, 1,000 in Paris and 1,500 in Turin), Sinner needs a near-perfect end to the year to usurp Alcaraz.
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With the win over Altmaier, Sinner stretched his unbeaten run on indoor hard courts to 17 matches and the fact that the Paris Masters and ATP Finals are also played on indoor courts is good news for the Italian.
On the flip side, he is yet to crack it at the Paris event as he missed the 2024 edition due to a virus, while he reached the third round the year before, but then withdrew because of fatigue.
He lost in the second round on his debut in 2021 and made a first-round exit the following year.
But there is better news on the ATP Finals front as he won the tournament last year without dropping set while in 2023 he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, is not competing this week so he only has the Paris Masters and ATP Finals remaining on his calendar and he is yet to reach the final of either tournament.
Last year, he lost in the third round in Paris while his best run was in 2022 when he reached the quarter-final. As for the ATP Finals, he failed to make it past the round-robin phase in 2024 while the year before he lost in the semi-final.
