Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz has a chance this week to return to the top of the world tennis rankings with a tournament win in Indian Wells.
If he won his third Masters 1000 tournament after Miami and Madrid last year, the Spaniard would overtake Novak Djokovic by 260 points. The Serb is not eligible to compete in California or enter the USA because he has not been vaccinated against the corona virus. Alcaraz has already cleared hurdle one.
The 19-year-old defeated the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis 6:3,6:3 and now meets the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor on Tuesday night (CET). Including this game, Alcaraz still need five wins to regain the top position in the ranking for the first time since January.
Co-favorites already out surprisingly early
This could be relieved for him, since the numbers two and three of the event are already out. Because the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in round two to the Australian Jordan Thompson 6:7(0),6:4,6:7(5), the Norwegian Casper Ruud (3) in round three to the Chilean Cristian Garin 4:6,6 :7(2).
Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev (5) have already made it into the round of 16, the German and the Russian are now meeting. Medvedev has not lost since his third-round out at the Australian Open.
His winning streak now runs over 16 games and includes title wins in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. If the 26-year-old also manages to win the final in Indian Wells, where a record attendance of 61,000 fans was set on Saturday, he would improve his ranking from sixth to fifth.
