How Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev's past rankings put Carlos Alcaraz's World No. 1 position in 2022 into perspective
Carlos Alcaraz rose to the top of the ATP rankings in September, beating Casper Ruud in the final of the US Open. In addition to claiming his first Grand Slam title, the Spaniard also became the first teenager in ATP history to become the World No. 1, a feat even the indomitable Rafael Nadal could not achieve during his dominant teenage years.
However, there has been continuous pushback against Alcaraz and his No. 1 spot on social media, with many claiming that he got lucky during a tumultuous year for tennis. It is mainly due to the Wimbledon fiasco, where the men's body stripped the tournament of ranking points due to its blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
With 6,740 points at the moment, Alcaraz, therefore, does not have as many points as most World No. 1s have throughout the years. In fact, this is the lowest a top-ranked player has had to accumulate since 2009, lending credit to the argument in a roundabout way.
Many feel that Novak Djokovic, the reigning Wimbledon champion and World No. 1 at the start of the year, is the deserving player and that he was robbed by the ATP of the top spot. The Serb currently sits in seventh position, maintaining a haul of 3,820 points.
Even with the addition of points from SW19, the Serb would only be at 5,820, well short of Alcaraz's tally. This is true of every other player this year: Even if they had been awarded points at Wimbledon, they wouldn't have been able to challenge the teenager's hold on the No. 1 spot.
'In the 2021 season, two players had more points than Alcaraz but sat outside the world’s top 5! ❗️
- May 10 - July 5, 2021, with 7,350,Zverev was ranked 6th in the world. He would be No 1 today.
- Thiem, who earned 7,425 points btw July 12 - Sept 6, 2021, was also ranked 6th.
Last year, however, Carlos Alcaraz would have been on the wrong end of the stick. In 2021, for example, Alexander Zverev had 7,350 points after reaching the semifinals of the French Open. Dominic Thiem, on the other hand, had 7,425 points to his name after the stint in Paris.
Despite that, the duo were good enough to be ranked only World No. 6 and World No. 5 respectively. Ahead of them were Novak Djokovic (12,113 points), Daniil Medvedev (10, 143 points), Rafael Nadal (8,630 points) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (7,980 points). Behind Thiem and Zverev was Andrey Rublev, holding on to 5,910 points.
Alcaraz, therefore, would have only been ranked World No. 7 in that point in space and time, perhaps an interesting parallel with Novak Djokovic at present. While what has transpired in 2022 is not the Spaniard's fault by any means, there is some undeniable basis to the argument that he has benefited from an unusual year all-around for the sport.
The teenager has achieved one of the most difficult feats in tennis, a feat so hard that only 27 players had managed to accomplish it before he came along. Now, he has to do something even harder -- stay at the top and show the world that he deserves it.
For the record, only nine players in ATP history have been World No. 1 for more than 100 weeks. It will be interesting to see whether Carlos Alcaraz is as good as he has been hyped and whether he can manage to hold on to the No. 1 spot for that long, let alone surpass everyone who has ever picked up a tennis racquet.
Carlos Alcaraz has had a cursed start to life as World No. 1
At the moment, however, Carlos Alcaraz has not had the start he would have hoped for in his new life as the World No. 1. His first tournament after the US Open triumph came at the Davis Cup, where he lost his opener against Felix Auger-Aliassime. Thankfully, he bounced back against Kwon Soon-woo in the tie against South Korea.
Lucky loser David Goffin, who lost to 19yo Luca Nardi in the qualifying and replaced 19yo Holger Rune in the MD, beats 19yo Carlos Alcaraz, no less than the ATP #1, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the R2 in Astana.
That's the 1st straight sets loss of the year for Alcaraz. In 63 (!) matches.
His first singles tournament was the Astana Open, where he took on lucky loser David Goffin in his opener, where he suffered a shock exit against the Belgian in straight sets. With the loss, Carlos Alcaraz also lost his record of having won at least a set in every match he has played this year, thus starting off his reign in the worst way imaginable.