Alcaraz To Retain No. 2 Ranking After Zverev's Loss At Vienna Open

The battle for the year-end No. 1 ranking on the ATP Tour is already over, but Carlos Alcaraz will stay at No. 2 after Alexander Zverev's defeat at the 2024 Vienna Open.

Jannik Sinner was confirmed as the year-end No. 1 earlier this month after Alcaraz's quarterfinal defeat at the Shanghai Masters. He became the quickest player to achieve this since Novak Djokovic in 2015.

The Italian first became No. 1 after the French Open, overtaking Novak Djokovic. He extended his lead further by winning the Cincinnati Open, the US Open, and the Shanghai Masters.

Alcaraz had closed the gap on Sinner by securing the French Open and Wimbledon titles. His second run to glory at Wimbledon took his Grand Slam tally to four despite still being just 21 years old.

The Spaniard also outlasted Sinner in the China Open final a few weeks ago, but his rival's status as the year-end No. 1 became official eight days later after his loss to Tomas Machac in Shanghai.

That means finishing 2024 at No. 2 is the best Alcaraz can hope for. However, he decided not to play at the ongoing Vienna Open or Swiss Indoors after featuring at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia last week.

Despite vocally opposing the length of the tennis calendar, Zverev elected to compete at the Vienna Open. He was not one of the players featured at the Six Kings Slam, which made it a more viable option for him.

The German comfortably triumphed against Joel Schwaerzler and Marcos Giron in the opening rounds to set up a meeting against this year's Wimbledon semifinalist and Olympic bronze medalist, Lorenzo Musetti.

Zverev looked to be on his way to another straightforward victory after winning the opening set 6-2. He dominated the backhand-to-backhand exchanges in particular against his Italian opponent.

However, Musetti worked his way back into the match and beat Zverev 2-6, 7-6, 6-4. It was his second consecutive win against the two-time Grand Slam runner-up, the other being at the Olympics.

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Zverev entered the Vienna Open on 6,795 points, 325 behind Alcaraz on 7,120. He was dropping 90 points from last year, meaning, in reality, he trailed the Spaniard by 415 points at the start of the tournament.

That meant Zverev could only overtake Alcaraz if he won the Vienna Open, which would have given him 500 points. The runner-up in Vienna will receive 330 points and the semifinalists 200 points.

The 100 points he will collect for getting to the quarterfinal is not close to enough to move ahead of Alcaraz. Zverev is set to move onto 6,805 points, still 315 points behind the four-time Grand Slam champion.

However, Zverev's hopes of finishing as the year-end No. 2 are still very much alive. Both Zverev and Alcaraz will play at the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals, with plenty of ranking points still on offer for both men.

Any points accumulated before the end of the season could also help both men in their quest to overtake Sinner as the world No. 1 in 2025.

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