World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will reign supreme in his 391st week at the top of the world rankings, maintaining the same gap after the conclusion of the US Open on second-placed Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in New York by virtue of winning his opening match. Djokovic went on to win a record-tying 24th Grand Slam at the end of the tournament to cement his status as the world's top-ranked player at least for the next two months.
Alcaraz's semifinal loss at the same tournament meant that he'll play catchup between now and the Paris Masters to truncate Djokovic's monstrous 3,260 points. Djokovic, with 11,795 points will drop a maximum of 750 points for skipping his title defenses in Astana and Tel Aviv - the latter was moved in the schedule in 2023.
Alcaraz has 8,535 points and can garner a maximum of 1,500 points if he wins tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai, where Djokovic chose not to participate in. There was no movement in the rankings in the world's Top 40 as the ATP Tour rested, with most players diverting their attention to the Davis Cup.
Elsewhere, it was time for the unsung heroes of men's tennis to enjoy an ascent in the rankings. Five ATP Challenger tournaments took place this past week and there was significant movement in the rankings for the winners and beaten finalists.
American Maxime Cressy has had a shipwreck of a season on Tour but bounced back superbly at the Challenger 100 in Rennes. Cressy did not drop a set en route to his first Challenger title since 2021, benefitting from a retirement in the final from opponent Benjamin Bonzi.
Cressy rises to 104th in the rankings, making up 22 spots. While Bonzi who sadly retired from the match, re-entered the Top 100. Czech Vit Kopriva rose 21 spots to 127th after reaching his second successive final on red clay at the Szczecin Challenger in Poland but came up short in the title match.
Argentina's Francisco Comesana is another player whose ranking vaulted by double digits to a new career-high mark of 133 by virtue of finishing runner-up in the Santa Cruz Challenger in Bolivia.
It's been a terrific September for 21-year-old French youngster Terence Atmane who captured his second career title on the ATP's second tier, streaking to win the Guangzhou Challenger (his first title also coming on Chinese soil in Zhangjiagang). Atmane saved three championship points to beat Marc Polmans in the final. Consequently, he breaks the Top 150 for the first time.
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