Novak Djokovic is currently the world no. 1 on the ATP Tour but with injury troubling him recently, he may soon lose the spot.
The fight for the world no. 1 spot between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic is something that the tennis world has been enjoying for the past few months. The teenager gained it for the first time after his US Open victory, but after triumphing in Melbourne, Djokovic took it back.
Now, it's still the 22-time Grand Slam champion who occupies the world no. 1 spot, and he will extend the record for the most weeks spent at world no. 1, which he owns, even further on Monday, starting already his 384th week as the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour.
After Djokovic's withdrawal from the Madrid Open, all eyes immediately pointed to the ATP Rankings to see if the Serb will be able to keep his spot despite the withdrawal from the ATP 1000 tournament in the Spanish capital.
And the answer is yes, but by an incredibly thin margin. After the Madrid Open, Djokovic's point total will drop from 7135 to 6775 points, as he won't be able to defend his last year's 360 points for semifinals.
Currently 2nd Alcaraz, won a title in Barcelona this week and took his total to 6770 points, and since he's the defending champion in Madrid, even if he wins the title again, his points total won't change and come back to 6770 points again, trailing Djokovic only by 5 points.
On the ATP Tour, where points at every event are rounded to 5, this is the smallest possible margin between the two players, as it's impossible to earn 1 or 2 points. However, despite keeping his world no. 1 spot, troubles can start for Djokovic in Rome.
Four weeks from now, both players will be separated only by five points if they don't add any to their total. Djokovic would have 5775 and Alcaraz would sit at 5570. That is because the Serb won last year's Italian Open, while the teenager was forced to miss it.
That means, that if healthy, Alcaraz needs to add only 5 more points than Djokovic over the coming five weeks, and he has two ATP 1000 tournaments to do it, in Madrid and in Rome. On the other hand, with Djokovic's withdrawal from the Madrid Open, he will have only the Italian Open to add any more points before the 2023 Roland Garros, where seeding can play a crucial role, as Rafael Nadal won't be among the top two seeds.
But the fight for the world no. 1 spot isn't only between Alcaraz and Djokovic. The third Daniil Medvedev currently has 5240 points and trails the two by quite a margin. However, since they are both defending 1000 points in the coming weeks, and he missed out on the last year's clay-court season, he has a chance to fight for the spot too.
In the weeks of Madrid and Rome, the Russian would need to add 535 more points that Djokovic and Alcaraz to his total to become the world no. 1 before the Roland Garros. Impossible? Surely not, but with a massive difference in clay-court qualities of these players, surely improbable.
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