Carlos Alcaraz is the form player in men\u2019s tennis after he backed up his thrilling win in last week\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters with a run to the Barcelona Open final \u2013 but he might still be about to lose the world No 2 ranking.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz extended his winning run at the Barcelona Open to a hugely impressive 14 matches with a comfortable victory over Arthur Fils in the semi-finals in front an enthusiastic Barcelona crowd.<\/p>\n
This was a much more comprehensive win than Alcaraz served up against Fils in a classic semi-final in Monte Carlo, as he had far too much firepower for the 20-year-old Frenchman as he beat him 6-2 6-4.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing we have to be grateful for is the sun,\u201d Alcaraz said, after a week of less than warm conditions in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sun was out, it wasn\u2019t raining. There was [however] a lot of wind today, so I had to survive. It wasn\u2019t about playing fantastic tennis, brilliant shots\u2026 It was about making the shots you have to do, no more than that.<\/p>\n
Explained: What Munich Open heckler shouted at Alexander Zverev about domestic abuse allegations <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSince I was a little kid, I was here on Sundays watching the final. I played twice here so being in a final here in Barcelona again means a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cIn front of my people, my friends who came from Murcia, and of course, the people here in Barcelona. It\u2019s been a really fun and great week, and let\u2019s see if we can end tomorrow with a trophy.\u201d;<\/p>\n Alcaraz won the title in Barcelona in in 2022 and 2023 before missing last year\u2019s tournament through injury and even though he is picking up fresh ranking points this week, he could still be ousted as world No 2.<\/p>\n Alcaraz remains some distance behind Jannik Sinner in the battle for the world No 1 ranking, but he returned to the No 2 ranking after his Monte Carlo Masters win last week.<\/p>\n Now he could be one defeat away from losing that ranking, as he needs to beat an in-form Holger Rune in Sunday\u2019s final to hold onto the No 2 ranking.<\/p>\n Alexander Zverev has been struggling for form throughout 2025, but he has battled his way through to the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Munich this week and will overtake Alcaraz in the rankings if he wins his final against Ben Shelton and Rune wins in Barcelona.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s awesome, the entire week has been amazing,\u201d said Zverev as he commented on the Munich event that has been upgraded to ATP 500 level.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spectators have been really enjoying the weather, the new centre court and the new tournament. I\u2019m enjoying it myself and hopefully I can have another great day tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I played quite a good match. I lost focus once in the first set on my serve, but apart from that I thought it was a good match. I thought Fabian played extremely well and I\u2019m just happy to be in the final.\u201d<\/p>\n Zverev openly admitted he was lacking on confidence after his poor results in recent months, so this revival in front of his German fans could be significant as he prepares for a crucial few weeks that will include the defence of the Rome Masters title he won last year.<\/p>\n The battle between Zverev and Alcaraz for the world No 2 ranking is significant, as the player who comes out on top would avoid a clash with world No 1 Jannik Sinner in next month\u2019s French Open final until the final in Roland Garros.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Holger Rune secures stunning rankings breakthrough as he seals Carlos Alcaraz showdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Carlos Alacarz could face alarming rankings fall if he loses Barcelona final<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carlos Alcaraz is the form player in men\u2019s tennis after he backed up his thrilling win in last week\u2019s Monte Carlo Masters with a run to the Barcelona Open final \u2013 but he might still be about to lose the world No 2 ranking. Alcaraz extended his winning run at the Barcelona Open to a […]<\/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-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","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=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}