What Carlos Alcaraz’s win over Jannik Sinner means for rankings as Novak Djokovic opens door for chasing pack
Carlos Alcaraz’s victory over Jannik Sinner in Indian Wells means the Spaniard will remain at No 2 in the ATP Rankings after the Indian Wells Open while Novak Djokovic’s decision to tweak his schedule has opened the door for the chasing pack in terms of the No 1 spot.
Sinner has been the form player this year as he won his maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open and followed it up with the Rotterdam Open title.
Those back-to-back trophies lifted him to a career-high No 3 in the ATP Ranking and he briefly found himself as high as No 2 in the LIVE Rankings at this week’s Indian Wells Open as Alcaraz dropped 1,000 points as the defending champion while Sinner only had 360 points to defend.
Alcaraz, though, ended Sinner’s 16-match unbeaten run in the semi-final in California and it means the two-time Grand Slam winner will remain at No 2 when the ATP Rankings are updated after the tournament.
LIVE Rankings Before Indian Wells Final
1. Novak Djokovic 9,725 points
2. Carlos Alcaraz 8,455
3. Jannik Sinner 8,310
4. Daniil Medvedev 7,765
Alcaraz will face Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s final and if the Spaniard successfully defends his title he will move to 8,805 points – 920 points adrift of Djokovic in first place – with Medvedev staying on 7,765. A Medvedev title will see the Russian move to 8,115 points with Alcaraz staying on 8,455.
The Miami Open follows next week and 1,000 points will once again be on offer to the winner and Djokovic’s decision not to play at the ATP Masters 1000 event has given his rivals hope of overhauling him, although that won’t happen in the next fortnight.
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Djokovic is assured of staying at No 1 until at least April 14, which will put him 420 weeks at the top of the rankings.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner will remain on 9,725 points after Miami as he didn’t compete last year while Medvedev is the defending champion so he will drop 1,000 points, Sinner 600 and Alcaraz 360.
If Alcaraz does end up winning the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells Open and Miami Open), then he will move to 9,445 points and it will mean the No 1 ranking will be on the spell at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The first clay-court Masters 1000 event starts on April 15 and Alcaraz and Djokovic didn’t play last year so it could be a case of the last man standing will take the No 1 ranking.
Sinner and Medvedev have a bigger mountain to climb as the Italian reached the semi-finals in 2024 while Medvedev made it to the last eight.
But with Djokovic admitting recently that his goals have changed, it could mean that he will no longer prioritise the world No 1 ranking with his sole focus on the four Grand Slams as well as gold at this year’s Paris Olympics.
