Alexander Zverev squandered a big opportunity to close the gap to Jannik Sinner at the top of the ATP Rankings after his shock exit at the Rio Open.<\/p>\n
The German lost 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 to world No 86 Francisco Comesana in the quarter-finals of the clay-court ATP 500 tournament.<\/p>\n
The three-time Grand Slam runner-up led 4-1 in the third set, but his 24-year-old Argentine opponent won five straight games from that position to seal a sizeable upset.<\/p>\n
Following his defeat to Comesana, Zverev<\/a> said:\u00a0\u201cBetter level than Buenos Aires, but unfortunate to finish the tournament like this.<\/p>\n \u201cI still enjoyed my time in Rio and hope to come back. It\u2019s one of the most beautiful 500s that I\u2019ve ever played. Shame because I was in a winning position.\u201d<\/p>\n Zverev, the world No 2, was the only top 25 player in the draw in Rio following the withdrawals of Holger Rune and Lorenzo Musetti.<\/p>\n Sebastian Baez, the defending champion and world No 31, is the only top 50 player in the semi-final lineup.<\/p>\n The 10 different men to win the Rio Open title: ft. Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The extensive list of conditions that Jannik Sinner must follow during 3-month ban<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Speaking earlier in the tournament, Zverev did not hide from the fact that becoming world No 1 for the first time is one of his key objectives.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not number one in the world yet, but I want to be,\u201d the 27-year-old said. \u201cMy goal is to fight for the big titles and the top spot in the rankings with Alcaraz and Sinner. There are things they do better than me. I have to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n With world No 1 Sinner<\/a> banned from playing on the ATP Tour until May 4 due to failed doping tests, both Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz have a chance to make up ground.<\/p>\n Zverev will remain on the\u00a08,135 points he started the week with after his quarter-final exit in Rio, which leaves him 3,195 points adrift of Sinner. He could have collected a further 400 points had he won the 500 event.<\/p>\n Alcaraz also missed an opportunity this week as he fell in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open \u2014 leaving him with 7,510 points in the live rankings.<\/p>\n Sinner will drop 1,600 while he is on the sidelines, which will put him on 9,730 points when he makes his comeback at the Italian Open in May.<\/p>\n During this period, Zverev is defending 850 points, while Alcaraz will defend 1,400.<\/p>\n The German, therefore, needs to earn 2,446 points, while Alcaraz will require 3,721 points, to overtake Sinner by the time the Rome ATP Masters 1000 event begins.<\/p>\n Zverev will next compete at the Mexican Open, an ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco which begins next week.<\/p>\n READ NEXT:\u00a0Jimmy Connors makes his feelings clear on Jannik Sinner\u2019s doping ban<\/a> The post How Alexander Zverev\u2019s shock Rio Open defeat affects Jannik Sinner world No 1 chase<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexander Zverev squandered a big opportunity to close the gap to Jannik Sinner at the top of the ATP Rankings after his shock exit at the Rio Open. The German lost 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 to world No 86 Francisco Comesana in the quarter-finals of the clay-court ATP 500 tournament. The three-time Grand Slam runner-up led […]<\/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-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","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=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATP Tennis News<\/h2>\n
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