ATP Rankings: Alcaraz all but guaranteed to enter French Open as World No.1

Here is all you need to know about the latest ATP Rankings released on May 8, 2023.

Carlos Alcaraz is all but guaranteed to enter this year’s French Open as the World No.1

The 20-year-old Spaniard successfully defended his Madrid Open title on Sunday and reduced top-ranked Novak Djokovic’s lead to five points. The Serbian, who lost to Alcaraz in last year’s semifinal, did not play in the Spanish capital this time and dropped 360 points.

Since Djokovic is the defending champion at Italian Open in Rome, the last event before Roland Garros, he cannot improve his current ranking points total. On the other hand, Alcaraz, who missed last year’s ATP 1000 Masters event in the Italian capital, just has to play a match in this edition as that will award him a minimum of 10 points.

In the top 10, American Taylor Fritz moved up to ninth while Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime slipped to 10th.

Jan-Lennard Stuff, the 33-year-old German who lost to Alcaraz in the Madrid Open final, moved up 37 spots to reach a new career-high of 28th. Struff had lost to Russia’s Aslan Karatsev in the final qualifying round but got into the main draw as a lucky loser after Frenchman Constant Lestienne pulled out and ended up beating Karatsev in the semifinals.

Karatsev made a massive jump of 68 spots to re-enter top 100 (World No.53).

Alexander Zverev lost to Alcaraz in the round of 16 in a rematch of last year’s final and slipped six spots to 22nd. The 26-year-old German is out of top 20 for the first time in six years.

Three-time Major winner and former World No.1 Andy Murray, with his title-winning run at the ATP 175 Challenger event in Aix-en-Provence, moved up 10 spots to 42nd, his highest ranking in five years.

China’s Zhizhen Zhang, who became the first man from his nation to reach the quarterfinals of a Masters event, moved up 30 spots to reach a new career-high of 69.