Alcaraz at the top - but is Novak Djokovic still the real number 1?
Novak Djokovic is currently only 7th in the ATP world rankings, and only 15th in the annual race. A deceptive picture.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 03, 2022, 04:58 pm
If you look at the current world rankings, the changing of the guard seems to have taken place. No more Roger Federer in the top 10, no Andy Murray. Djoker in 7th place. Only Rafa Nadal greets from 2nd place again this week.
Because at the top: 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz has been standing since his US Open victory.
The Spaniard does this with the lowest number of points since the new ranking system was introduced in 2009, namely 6,740 points. At that time, the points for victories in majors and masters tournaments were doubled.
The reason for Alcaraz' rare few points for the top, among other things: There were no points to be won in Wimbledon this year. Likewise in Shanghai last fall - the Masters tournament was cancelled.
Had, would, if...
However, you can also think: does Novak Djokovic have something to do with it - and would he still be at the top under normal circumstances?
As a reminder: The Djoker holds the record for the most points as the world number one, in 2016 he was at the top with 16,950 points. That's more than 10,000 points more than Alcaraz currently has.
In the current ranking, Djokovic only has 3,820 points despite his great form, and only 2,220 in the annual race!
Why does Novak Djokovic have so few points in the world rankings?
There are essentially two reasons why Djokovic is doing so "badly": There were no points to be won in Wimbledon this year, Djokovic would have 2,000 more points under normal circumstances. In addition: Djokovic's vaccination status, which prevented him from entering Australia, the USA and Canada.
In particular, Djokovic was unable to take part in the Australian Open and US Open (2,000 points each!), Nor in the Masters tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati (1,000 points each)! In total, that was another 8,000 points that he had no chance of. How many of those would he have gotten? Pure speculation of course. In the current form, however, one could have expected some.
Carlos Alcaraz can still score a lot of points!
To quote Lothar Matthäus: "Would be, would be, bicycle chain." Because one thing is also clear: those who are at the top do so rightly. And Alcaraz is a deserved top man after his brutally strong year with five tournament wins (including 1 Major and 3 Masters tournaments).
In autumn 2022, Carlos Alcaraz also has every chance of increasing his number of points. Alcaraz has just 280 points to defend for the rest of the year (10 from Indian Wells, 180 from Vienna, 90 from Paris). So he can still improve and expand his top position.
For Djokovic, on the other hand, it will be more difficult to make up a lot of ground: he still has 1,600 points to defend in the rest of the 2022 season.