Djokovic Still Leads Race To Year-End No. 1 Thanks To Alcaraz's Latest Loss

| by Sebastian Dahlman

Two players are in contention to finish the year as the top player in the world, and for now, it's still Novak Djokovic ahead.

The year-end No. 1 rank might not sound that amazing when you hear it, but it's actually something tennis players care a lot about. If you finish the year as the world number one, it means that you were the best player in the world in the previous year.

That's significant, and players care about it a lot. That's why you heard Aryna Sabalenka talking about being number one at the end of the year more so than already being number one. Plenty of players have been number one at one point in time, but not all have finished a year as number one.

Last year it was Carlos Alcaraz who finished as number one on the ATP Tour. It was the first time in his career that he did that, and it largely had to do with Djokovic missing a good chunk of the season as he couldn't enter the United States.

This year the Serbian did enter the country, and played amazingly, winning both the US Open and Cincinnati Masters.

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It allowed him to overtake Carlos Alcaraz as the number one in real-time but also position himself as the most likely player to finish number one. Daniil Medvedev admitted a few weeks ago that he thinks Alcaraz would get it done, and while it's still possible, it's a real fight.

As of right now, Djokovic has 8945 points while Alcaraz has 8445 so it's not a huge difference, but the important point is that these events in Asia were a unique chance for Alcaraz to make up ground.

They will basically play the same schedule in the coming weeks, so Alcaraz will need to outperform Djokovic in all of those to try and make up ground.

It's certainly possible but it would have been much easier if he did that at these events where Djokovic didn't play. Either way, stay tuned for this very interesting battle in the coming weeks.

Carlos Alcaraz Confirms His Next Tournament After Surprising Shanghai Exit
Carlos Alcaraz Confirms His Next Tournament After Surprising Shanghai Exit

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