The victory of Carlos Alcaraz over the German Jan-Lennard Struff in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open 2023 is a very juicy booty for the Spanish tennis player. And it is that, in addition to revalidating the title in the Magic Box achieved last year, the man from El Palmar manages to add his tenth title (fourth Masters 1000) in his short and meteoric career and above all, allows him to be about to return to the number 1 in the ATP ranking.
The Murcian has become a giant on the ATP circuit in record time, since in 2020, at the age of 16, he won his first match in the final draw of an official tournament. A year later, he won his first title, the Umag tournament (ATP Tour 250), in a season in which he also made his Grand Slam debut (Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and breaking various records. of precocity.
However, Carlos Alcaraz achieved his definitive emergence in world tennis in 2022. With his victories in Rio de Janeiro (ATP 500 where he rose to 30th place in the ranking), Miami Masters, Conde de Godó in Barcelona (entering the top 10 world) and Masters 1000 in Madrid (beating Nadal, Djokovic and Zverev and rising to sixth place in the world). Regarding the Grand Slams, he highlighted his first victory in a major at the US Open.
His triumph in the United States made him the youngest tennis player in history to win number one in the ATP ranking since the creation of this classification in 1973. The Spaniard was 19 years, four months and seven days old.
To date, Carlos Alcaraz has led the world rankings for 22 weeks in two stages. Now, after reaping his second consecutive victory in Madrid against the German Struff, the Spanish tennis player envisions a new assault on the throne.
This Monday, May 8, the man from El Palmar appears installed in second position in the ATP ranking with 6,770 points, only five less than Novak Djokovic (6,775). Precisely, the Serbian was the one who took first place from Alcaraz on January 29. In third place is the Russian Daniil Medvedev, with 5,330 points, and in fourth position, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, with 5,165.
Alcaraz returned to No. 1 from March 20 to April 3 thanks to his victory in Indian Wells, but failed to stay on top due to his semifinal loss in Miami. The rest of the cut in points from Alcaraz to Djokovic is mainly explained by the victories of the former in Barcelona and Madrid and by the points that the latter has been leaving: 250 by losing in the quarterfinals of Banja Luka and 360 by not playing in Madrid.
With these numbers and with the calendar in hand, Carlos Alcaraz will surpass Djokovic again this month simply by participating in a match of the Masters 1,000 in Rome, thus reaching Roland Garros as number 1 in the ATP ranking. Qualified directly for the second round of the Italian tournament, the young tennis player will add 10 points in his first duel at the Foro Italico. Enough to consummate the reconquest and appear in the first place of the classification on May 22.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
