Carlos Alcaraz celebrates his victory at the US Open with Juan Carlos Ferrero and the rest of his team. /
Tenis | Ranking ATP
The Murcian will add his eighth week on the ATP throne this Monday and will only have Nadal ahead of him in the national historical classification
Only 19 years old, the disciple has hunted down the master. Carlos Alcaraz will equal Juan Carlos Ferrero tomorrow as the second Spaniard who has held the ATP throne for the longest time. When the ‘ranking’ is updated, the Murcian will add his eighth week as number 1 in tennis, the same ones that his coach accumulated. Ahead, in the historical classification there will be 20 players and only one Spaniard, the colossus Rafael Nadal, although in practically unattainable heights: the Balearic accumulates 209 weeks, the fifth best record of all time.
The conquest of the US Open allowed Alcaraz to destroy Lleyton Hewitt’s precocity record as the king of tennis, but it also provided him with a comfortable cushion of almost 1,000 points on the second step. Since then, the ATP calendar opened a break between the North American tour and the final stretch of the year on the indoor track: only a handful of 500 and 250 category tournaments have been played. Little margin to shake the ‘top 10’ of the ‘ranking’ .
In addition, the two main pursuers of Alcaraz have not squeezed him. Nadal has rested after the US Open due to his recent fatherhood and to recover from his recurring physical problems. In fact, the man from Manaco, who had not defended points in the last month, has snatched the second step from Ruud without having to pick up the racket. The Norwegian is not looking up after losing in the New York final: he has lost three of his four ATP matches since then, all consecutively. The last one, this week in Basel against a Wawrinka far from his glorious years. A bad streak that has subtracted more than 300 points and leaves his position on the tennis podium in danger.
Total tranquility for Alcaraz, who does not feel the encouragement of members of the ‘top 10’ such as Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Despite the fact that he had not won an ATP match as number 1 until he resurfaced in Switzerland, the Murcian will reach the Masters 1000 in Paris, the last of the year, as the first seed. And he has already held the leadership of the ATP circuit longer than five other number 1s in history. Among them, Carlos Moyá, the fourth Spaniard who reached the top.
end of year goal
Coincidentally, Ferrero also rose to first place after reaching the US Open final, in 2003, months after raising his only Grand Slam at Roland Garros. The Valencian chained his eight weeks at the top consecutively, but at the beginning of November Andy Roddick unseated him and he never returned. A few months later, Roger Federer ushered in the era of the ‘Big Three’, a period of unprecedented tyranny.
One of its members, Novak Djokovic, clearly heads the historical ranking. The Serbian has no rival. Until now, he has set the record at 373 weeks at the top of the ATP, a period equivalent to 7 years. The podium is completed by the recently retired Swiss maestro (310), and Pete Sampras (286), the main dominator of the 1990s. In addition to ‘Nole’, Nadal and Alcaraz, there are only two other active players who have reached the highest. Andy Murray (41 weeks), already far from the top of the ranking, and Medvedev (16), leader until the emergence of the Murcian and another of the candidates to regain first place.
The last month of the season will test the reign of Carlos Alcaraz. Before the Davis Cup, Ferrero’s pupil only has two ATP tournaments left, but both put at stake a succulent loot of points. Starting tomorrow, Paris closes the Masters 1000 course and two weeks later, the Nitto ATP Finals will distribute up to 1,500 units to the champion. It will depend on his performance in these competitions whether Alcaraz pockets his next goal: to finish the year as number 1. Getting there is a major achievement, but the name that remains engraved in history is the one that closes the course as leader.
The main threat in this closure of 2022 is Rafael Nadal. The month of November is presented as a propitious occasion for the Balearic, who has already confirmed his appearance in Paris and Turin, where he does not defend points from last year. The unknown is that he has not competed for almost two months, he must clear up any doubts about his physical condition and these are two of the few great titles that still elude him.
The fast and covered track is a scenario that does not favor Nadal. It is where he feels least comfortable. Just like Ruud, who doesn’t seem capable of bothering in his current state of form either. The other candidate, although with few options, is Stefanos Tsitsipas, who only defends 45 points this month. The Greek lifted his only major trophy on cement, his Achilles heel, precisely at the 2019 ATP Finals. In addition, he is not going through a sweet moment either. And the Russian Medvedev is out of the fight because last year he reached the finals in the two remaining dates, which leaves him with almost no room for growth.
Djokovic, possible ally
With these candidates, Alcaraz’s ally and judge in the number 1 fight could be Djokovic. The Serbian, intractable since Wimbledon, arrives hungry after missing the US Open and is the great favorite in the final stretch of the season but is too far away to ascend to the top.
But the one from El Palmar must focus on himself because he can still score a lot of points: he only defends 90 next week. In any case, the Murcian, who started 2022 with the aim of being ‘top 15’ at the end of the year, has to think about the present and be prudent to fill himself with confidence and put the finishing touch to an unforgettable year.
