Carlos Alcaraz - Feels like the best player in the world at the moment
With his success at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, Carlos Alcaraz made up more ground in the world rankings. And probably already qualified for the ATP finals in Turin.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: May 08, 2022, 11:29 pm
Carlos Alcaraz will be sixth in the ATP world rankings for the first time this Monday, a new career high for the Spaniard, who has just turned 19. According to general opinion, it will not stay that way, Alcaraz feels like the best player in the world right now (which is exactly what Alexander Zverev said at the award ceremony). In his tournament successes in Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Barcelona, one could still see that Alcaraz has beaten top players with Matteo Berrettini (in Rio), Stefanos Tsitsipas (in Miami and in Barcelona) andCasper Ruud (in Miami) - the However, the teenager did not have to get rid of big names at these events.
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After Madrid, there are no more questions left. Alexander Zverev may have acted far from his normal creativity in the final, but Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic threw everything into the balance in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively: first of all their fighting power and their will to win, which made Nadal and Djokovic those legends, who they are now.
Alcaraz will probably be there in Turin
Several things remain to be recorded: Carlos Alcaraz has already won more ATP Masters 1000 titles this year alone than Dominic Thiem, Andrey Rublev or Matteo Berrettini. And as many as Stefanos Tsitsipas. Alcaraz has become the first player ever to beat Nadal and Djokovic in a row in a tournament on clay. And with the coup in the Caja Magica he bought his ticket for the ATP Finals in Turin. Mathematically, this may not be fixed yet, but there will not be eight players who outperform Alcaraz in the annual ranking.
Does this automatically make Carlos Alcaraz the first favorite for the Roland Garros title? Not so fast. Because Novak Djokovic certainly didn't put all his cards on the table in Madrid, Rafael Nadal was not dissatisfied with his return after a break of several weeks. And Alexander Zverev will go into a possible re-match with Alcaraz better regenerated in Paris. But the Spaniard will probably no longer succeed in one thing: mixing with the four top seeds for the French Open. Especially not if Daniil Medvedev should also compete in Paris after starting in Geneva.
In Rome, Alcaraz starts on Tuesday at the earliest and then against Cristian Garin. A similar effort as in Madrid is not possible from the tableau: Alexander Zverev would be waiting in the quarter-finals, but Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were drawn in the upper half.
Here the single tableau in Rome
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