Carlos Alcaraz is holding onto his No. 1 ranking, but just barely. His lead over Jannik Sinner stayed exactly the same this week, even though tennis fans got some pretty dramatic action recently.
Sinner had been the world’s top player for 15 months straight. That all changed when Alcaraz beat him in the 2025 US Open final.
The Spanish star really outplayed his rival in that four-set win. It was sweet revenge after losing to Sinner in the Wimbledon final earlier that year.
| Name | Age | Points | Stats 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Alcaraz | 22 | 68,791 | 25 - 5 |
These two have been going at it all season long. They also met in the French Open final, where Alcaraz pulled off a miracle comeback after saving three championship points in the deciding set.
That means they’ve played each other in the last three major finals. Pretty amazing when you think about it.
The Numbers Game
Neither player has competed in any ranking tournaments since the US Open. Alcaraz did play at the Laver Cup last week, but that doesn’t count toward ATP points.
He couldn’t stop Team Europe from losing 9-15 to Team World either.
Right now, Alcaraz sits on 11,540 points. That’s 760 points ahead of Sinner’s 10,780. It sounds like a decent cushion, but it’s actually pretty tight in tennis terms.
The Italian definitely has a shot at getting back to No. 1. But the math isn’t really on his side.
Here’s the problem for Sinner: he’s got a ton of points to defend from last year’s amazing run. He’ll need to defend 2,500 points from winning both the ATP Finals and Shanghai Masters. Plus another 330 points from reaching the China Open final, where he lost to Alcaraz in a brutal three-hour battle.
Alcaraz only has to defend 500 points from that Beijing win. That’s a huge difference.
So Sinner needs to play incredible tennis and hope Alcaraz’s level drops off. Otherwise, finishing the year at No. 1 is going to be impossible.
Everything Else Stayed Put
The rest of the top rankings were pretty boring this week. No changes at all in the top 48 players.
Alexander Zverev is still No. 3, Novak Djokovic at No. 4, Taylor Fritz at No. 5. Ben Shelton holds No. 6, Jack Draper is No. 7, Alex de Minaur sits at No. 8, Lorenzo Musetti at No. 9, and Karen Khachanov rounds out the top 10.
The main reason nothing changed? The Chengdu Open and Hangzhou Opens are still going on. They finish Tuesday.
Musetti will play Alejandro Tabilo in the Chengdu final. Meanwhile, Alexander Bublik is hoping to win his fourth title of the season in Hangzhou against Valentin Royer.
Some Interesting Moves Down Below
Things got more interesting outside the top 50.
Matteo Berrettini played his first match since Wimbledon in Hangzhou. He lost in the first round to Dalibor Svrcina, which wasn’t great. But he still moved up one spot to No. 57.
That’s still way lower than where the Italian wants to be.
Marin Cilic had a tough time trying to repeat his magic from last year. Back in 2024, the former US Open champion became the lowest-ranked ATP titlist in history with an incredible run in Hangzhou.
This year? He lost in the opening round. Still jumped up one place to No. 59 though.
Sebastian Korda is still trying to find his rhythm after coming back from injury. He missed time at the end of 2024 and has been struggling since returning at Winston-Salem last month. He dropped one spot to No. 79.
Kei Nishikori climbed to No. 91, Hubert Hurkacz jumped to No. 71, and Jacob Fearnley had a rough week, falling 10 spots to No. 64.
The real action should heat up once these Asian tournaments wrap up and players start preparing for the final stretch of the season.
