Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters, but after this week, he can still overtake Jannik Sinner in the ATP Rankings.
The way the ATP Rankings work is pretty interesting, and sometimes, it can create some rather bizarre scenarios. One of those could happen this week regarding the rankings of Alcaraz and Siner.
After the Italian won the Miami Open, his Spanish rival slid down to number 3, because Sinner had more points than him, entering the Monte-Carlo Masters as the second seed.
It showcased what we've seen on the courts in the past few months: Sinner being better than Alcaraz. After this week, the Spaniard could find himself back at number two, but it wouldn't be because he would outplay Sinner on the courts.
Quite the contrary, Alcaraz won't be on the tennis courts this week at all, as he withdrew from the tournament. He has been dealing with some issues during practices, and even though there were reports that it was all a precaution, he eventually pulled out of the event.
Despite the withdrawal, the good thing for the 20-year-old is that he missed the tournament last year as well. Due to missing the Monte-Carlo Masters last year, Alcaraz has no points to defend, so he won't suffer any consequences regarding his ranking.
That's not the case for Sinner, who made it to the semi-final last year. That's a lot of points to defend for him, and if he fails to match the semi-final, he could find himself overtaken by Alcaraz.
It's not very likely that he'll crash out early, but it might happen. Ahead of Sinner's first match at the event, he has 8360 points after subtracting his last year's points, while Alcaraz has 8645 points, meaning the Italian needs to reach the semi-final again to keep his world no. 2 spot. He will play against Sebastian Korda in his first match at the event.