Carlos Alcaraz reached the highest ranking points total of his career after this win at the Qatar Open last week, but he will face a threat to his dominance as world No 1 from Jannik Sinner over the next couple of months.
We are now into the period of the year where Sinner has no ranking points to defend, as he was serving a doping suspension at this stage of 2025.
That means the Italian will head into the ATP 1000 events at Indian Wells and Miami with plenty to gain, as every win will give him a rankings boost.
By contrast, Alcaraz will be defending 400 ranking points after his run to the semi-finals of last year’s Indian Wells event.
It means that anything less than a run to the last four in the Californian desert will see Alcaraz dropping ranking points, with anything better adding to his points haul.
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Alcaraz will defend just 10 ranking points at Miami Open, where Sinner will once again look to add points to his total in a tournament he was forced to miss last year.
Even if he wins in Indian Wells and Miami, Sinner will not have a chance to overtake Alcaraz in the rankings until much later in this tennis season, as Alcaraz has a healthy 3,150 point lead at the top.
Alcaraz has plenty of points to defend heading into the clay court season after winning the Monte Carlo Masters title last April, the Rome Masters and then the French Open.
That period of the season is when Sinner will have a chance to challenge for the world No 1 ranking once again, but for now, the Wimbledon champion will be focusing on finding his form again after failing to win his first two tournaments of the season.
The standards set by Alcaraz and Sinner makes their rare defeats surprising, yet it is clear that the latter has been tinkering with his tactics in recent matches and it looking to add more variety to his game.
“I’ve had even tougher times in the past. I know how to come back,” he said after his defeat against Jakub Mensic at the Qatar Open last week.
“Every player faces ups and downs. I’ve had two incredible years and now I’m having a little downturn, but it’s not something that worries me. I know I can play better tennis, but Jakub played and served really well.
“We all have ups and downs in our jobs, so I’m not worried. We try to improve in every tournament I enter: I’d like to go as far as possible, but it’s normal to go through some tough times
“My approach to tennis is, we live also a normal life. I believe we live in situations and moments and emotions. This is the same with tennis. We have great moments. We have tough moments. We have sad moments and happy moments. It’s just an episode, right?
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“When I have tough losses, for me it’s just a moment. I believe that, you know, the hard work we are doing, of course, always the best thing is to win, but you cannot always win. I believe that I have a great, great team behind me. I have family, which is much more important than anything else.
“I do put tennis in the first place, no matter what. That’s what I choose, and that’s what I will always choose, until I’m done playing. Hopefully I can play for many more years, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t live the emotions.
“After tough losses I try to go through and try to understand what I can do better. At the end of the day, when I finish my career, I just don’t want to have regrets that I could have done something more. If my potential is winning, you know, this, but I have just one, it’s okay. If I win more, it’s okay. I just want to maximize my potential and to see how far I can go.”
We will have to wait a few weeks before the battle for the world No 1 ranking heats up, with the Alcaraz and Sinner rivalry set to dominate tennis once again over the next few months.
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