Carlos Alcaraz is currently the second-ranked player on the ATP Tour, but he won’t be able to improve that ranking during the upcoming grass-court season.
The Spaniard has already reached the world no. 1 spot in his career. In fact, he’s the youngest man ever to reach the world no. 1 spot, after achieving the feat following his 2022 US Open triumph at the age of 19 years 4 months and 7 days, more than 16 months younger than the second-youngest man in this statistics, Lleyton Hewitt (20 years 8 months 23 days).
Since becoming the top-ranked player in the ATP Rankings for the first time, the Spaniard had a total of four stints as the world no. 1, and every time, it was Novak Djokovic who ended his reign.
His first stint lasted 20 weeks before two short stays of two and three weeks. His final stay as the world no. 1 lasted 11 weeks, bringing his total to 36 weeks, to which he won’t add at least until August.
Currently ranked second, the 21-year-old has a total of 8,580 points to his name, but he can’t add a single point to his tally during the upcoming grass season. In fact, if he doesn’t win the Cinch Championships, where he’s set to compete, and Wimbledon, like he did last year, Alcaraz will lose points.
He defends the most points of all players during the upcoming grass season, and that’s one reason why he can’t really improve. After Wimbledon, the Spaniard’s total, without the points he will add, will be 6,080.
On the other hand, Jannik Sinner, who currently leads the rankings, is set to have at least 8,670 points. This means that even if the Italian didn’t add any points to his total and Alcaraz won both Queen’s and Wimbledon, he would still remain only at his current 8,580 points, 90 behind Sinner, who is expected to certainly add to that total, competing at the Halle Open and Wimbledon as well.
However, even though Alcaraz can’t overtake his young rival, there is one person who can, and it’s no other than 24-time major winner, Novak Djokovic. He is sure to have at least 7,160 points after Wimbledon, making his gap 1,510 points to the first Italian, who, if he shockingly loses early, can lose his spot in case the Serbian wins Wimbledon.
Still, Djokovic has currently other problems to solve, as he had to undergo surgery after injuring himself at Roland Garros, and he’s currently focusing on recovery.
