Carlos Alcaraz insists he has accepted that he will lose the world No 1 ranking to Jannik Sinner in the coming weeks, but says he will \u201cpush\u201d hard to regain top spot from his big rival.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard has been top of the ATP Rankings for the last 22 weeks<\/a> as he overtook Sinner last October, but he is a man under pressure at this week\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters as the Italian is hot on his heels.<\/p>\n Alcaraz<\/a> started this week with a 1,190-point lead over the world No 2, but he then dropped 1,000 points as he is the defending champion in the Principality, while Sinner doesn\u2019t have any points to defend after missing the tournament last year.<\/p>\n It effectively means he is just 190 points ahead of the four-time Grand Slam winner and if Sinner outperforms him in Monte Carlo, he will reclaim the No 1 spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n After starting his title defence with victory over Sebastian Baez, Alcaraz told the media<\/a>: \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m going to lose the number one of the world. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to be in this tournament or in the next one.<\/p>\n \u201cI defend a bunch of points that are going to be really difficult to defend all.\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH: Daniil Medvedev obliterates his racket in astonishing 49-minute Monte Carlo Masters loss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz reveals why he did not expect Jannik Sinner to play Monte Carlo Masters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Some were surprised by his comments, but the seven-time Grand Slam winner knows he has a mountain to climb as he is also defending 325 points at next week\u2019s Barcelona Open and another 1,000 points at the Italian Open while Sinner only has 650 points to defend in Rome.<\/p>\n When asked by Eurosport France<\/a> about his remarks, he replied: \u201cGetting back to Jannik and the world number one ranking, I saw that my statement caused a stir. But I mean it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has several important tournaments coming up where he can earn a lot of points. I have to defend some, and I can\u2019t defend them all. It\u2019s going to be tough, but that\u2019s also what makes our rivalry so exciting.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to become world No 1 again, and I\u2019m going to push him as far as I can to take that spot back. This battle for the top spot has been fantastic so far.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcaraz was also asked about areas of his game that he has improved since he won the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I have to single out one in particular, it\u2019s my serve. I\u2019ve already invested a lot of time in that aspect, not only on the court but also off it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cHow to improve my movement, my throw, my technique, my feel. I\u2019ve worked on it a lot; for me, it\u2019s crucial to visualise it both on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n His main target at the start of the 2026 season was to win the season-opening Grand Slam at Melbourne Park to complete his Career Grand Slam<\/a> and now that it has been ticked off the list, it\u2019s about setting new objectives.<\/p>\n The 22-year-old added: \u201cI\u2019ve understood something for some time: when you reach a seasonal goal, you have to take the time to enjoy it. But at the same time, it immediately forces you to start from scratch, to set new short-term goals.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I have in mind, very clearly, are the Grand Slam tournaments. I still have three scheduled this year. So I\u2019ve already shifted my attention to preparing for Roland Garros. It\u2019s a fantastic tournament, I love playing it, so I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Carlos Alcaraz surprised that his statement about No 1 battle \u2019caused a stir\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz insists he has accepted that he will lose the world No 1 ranking to Jannik Sinner in the coming weeks, but says he will \u201cpush\u201d hard to regain top spot from his big rival. The Spaniard has been top of the ATP Rankings for the last 22 weeks as he overtook Sinner last […]<\/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-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","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=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP News<\/h2>\n