Carlos Alcaraz is already enjoying his fourth stint as the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour, but how does he compare to the tennis greats?
When the young Spaniard won the 2022 US Open, he became the youngest man ever to become the world number one. Since then, he has lost the spot because of injuries, but also because of Novak Djokovic's dominance early in the season.
After the two players traded the top spot multiple times, Alcaraz started his reign again on June 26th, 2023, and he has kept the spot since then. Djokovic had a chance to retake it during the 2023 Wimbledon final, but since he lost, it's the 20-year-old who sits atop also now.
That means that Alcaraz spent already 30 weeks as the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour, and the number is excepted to increase even further, but where does he rank right now among all men that reached the world no. 1 spot.
In the history of the ATP Rankings, 28 players were ranked No. 1, and the shortest reign was recorded by Pat Rafter, who was on the top of the rankings for only one week, followed by Carlos Moya, who spent two weeks as the world No. 1.
Among those 28 men, Alcaraz is ranked 16th with 30 weeks. He's ahead of the likes of Andy Roddick, Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, but also his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, or Daniil Medvedev, who is one of the players that is fighting for the spot also this year.
Ahead of him are Ilie Nastase with 40 weeks, Andy Murray with 41 weeks, and also Gustavo Kuerten with 43 weeks. On top of the list is no other than Novak Djokovic, who recently broke Steffi Graf's record for the most weeks spent as world No. 1. The Serb has spent a total of 389 weeks as the highest-ranked player right now.