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Carlos Alcaraz won the Monte-Carlo Masters title, beating Lorenzo Musetti in the final on Sunday, April 13. The Spaniard thus earned 1000 valuable ranking points and moved up to the second place in ATP rankings with 7720 points, replacing Alexander Zverev.
Jannik Sinner, who won eight titles last year as well as the Australian Open earlier this year, continues to lead the men's ranking with 9930 points. The Italian is serving a three-month doping ban and will be back in action at the Italian Open in May.
Sinner will fail to defend the 200 points in the Madrid Open that he earned by reaching the quarterfinals last year. However, that is not going to affect his ranking, and he is certain to return to action as the World No. 1.
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The race between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev to heat up in the next couple of months
Carlos Alcaraz earned 200 points by reaching the quarterfinals in Madrid last year and also won the French Open. Hence, he will have 2200 (2000 + 200) points to defend in the remainder of the European clay swing. Similarly, Zverev won the Italian Open last year and finished runner-up at the French Open. That means that the German will have 2200 (1000 + 1200) points to defend as well.
Zverev trails Alcaraz by a meager 125 points at the moment and can easily overtake the latter by performing better than him in Madrid, Rome or Paris. It will be interesting to see which of the two players is ahead at the end of the European clay swing.
Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic do not have much to worry about losing points
Jannik Sinner did not play at the Italian Open last year. Hence, he will not have to worry about defending any number of points there this year. He can earn some points by making it to the quarterfinals and beyond. However, as the Italian reached the semifinal of the French Open last year, he will have 720 points to defend at Roland Garros.
If Alcaraz manages to win each of the remaining clay-court tournaments in Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros, only then can he think of toppling Sinner, as it will give him (500 + 800 + 1000) = 2300 additional points and take him close to 10000 points. If Sinner plays really poorly in both Rome and Paris, he runs the risk of being dethroned by Alcaraz in the above scenario.
Djokovic, who is in fifth position with 4120 points, will have 360 points to defend at Roland Garros, as he reached the quarterfinal last year. He did not play in Madrid and lost in the Round of 32 at the Italian Open last year. So, he does not have much to worry about in terms of losing points in either of those two tournaments this year.
