Jannik Sinner previously said a return to world No 1 in 2025 was \u201cimpossible\u201d before Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s early Paris Masters exit boosted the Italian\u2019s chances of returning to the top of the ATP Rankings.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz<\/a> replaced Sinner<\/a> as the world No 1 after defeating the Italian in the US Open final in September, and is in pole position to seal the year-end No 1 ranking for 2025.<\/p>\n However, the Spaniard\u2019s chances of sealing his first year-end No 1 finish since 2022 have been dented after a shock early exit in Paris, with the 22-year-old stunned in three sets by Cameron Norrie<\/a>.<\/p>\n Defeat to Norrie snapped Alcaraz\u2019s 17-match winning streak at Masters 1000 tournaments and also means that, while he is still in a strong position to finish 2025 as the world No 1, he could lose top spot to Sinner this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alcaraz holds 11,250 points in the ATP Live Rankings, with Sinner currently on 10,510 points ahead of the start of his campaign on Wednesday.<\/p>\n However, with the Italian defending no points in Paris this week, a run to the title would place him on 11,500 points, enough to replace his rival as the world No 1.<\/p>\n Sinner would then have 1,500 points to defend at the ATP Finals as the defending champion, with Alcaraz only defending 200 points in Turin \u2014 swinging momentum back in the Spaniard\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n However, Sinner now has more than a fighting chance to return to world No 1 in 2025 and potentially finish the season on top, something that he thought was not a possibility heading into this week.<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s full press conference after shock loss \u2013 \u2018I just want to be back home\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Leading injury expert reveals what players must \u2018start demanding\u2019 from tennis chiefs<\/a><\/p>\n Speaking in his pre-tournament press conference \u2014 held before Alcaraz\u2019s defeat \u2014 the four-time Grand Slam champion was asked about the opportunity to return to world No 1 by the end of 2025.<\/p>\n He replied: \u201cNo, it\u2019s impossible. Honestly, I\u2019m not thinking about this at the moment. It\u2019s going to be a goal for next year. This year it\u2019s not in my hands. Let\u2019s say it like this.<\/p>\n \u201cBut considering how the whole year went, you know, we have achieved some incredible things. Now I just want to finish the season the best possible way. If I can do something great, amazing. If not, I did something great already this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI will try, for me as also last year was, December is going to be a very important month for me, because I feel like we can make a lot of changes and a lot of work there. Also getting ready for the next season and the beginning of the season, I know how important it is for me for many scenarios.<\/p>\n \u201cSo let\u2019s see what I can achieve and do there, but I\u2019m relaxed. You know, I\u2019m very happy what I did this year, and then we see what\u2019s coming. And that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n World No 2 Sinner begins his Paris Masters campaign on Wednesday against world No 41 Zizou Bergs, who defeated Alex Michelsen in the opening round.<\/p>\n Sinner had received a bye into the second round and will take to court for the first time since lifting the Vienna Open title, beating Alexander Zverev last Sunday to claim his fourth title of the year.<\/p>\n The reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion could again face third seed Zverev, the reigning Paris Masters champion, in the last four this week.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: How many points are Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev, Fritz & other ATP stars defending at Paris Masters?<\/a><\/p>\n The post What Jannik Sinner said about \u2018impossible\u2019 world No 1 hopes before shock Carlos Alcaraz exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jannik Sinner previously said a return to world No 1 in 2025 was \u201cimpossible\u201d before Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s early Paris Masters exit boosted the Italian\u2019s chances of returning to the top of the ATP Rankings. Alcaraz replaced Sinner as the world No 1 after defeating the Italian in the US Open final in September, and is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n