How Sinner overturned the battle for world number 1 with Alcaraz

● The Italian does not defend any points in April

After Sinner’s title run at the Miami Open presented by Itau, the Italian closed the gap between himself and world No. 1 Alcaraz.

Spaniard Alcaraz remains 1,190 points ahead of Sinner in the PIF ATP Live rankings, but the 24-year-old Sinner is closing in quickly.

Entering the BNP Paribas Open, Alcaraz led Sinner by 3,150 points in the PIF ATP rankings. But Sinner has turned the tables ahead of the clay court season.

The Italian did not defend points either in Indian Wells or Miami while Alcaraz defended 410 points. This in itself wasn’t jarring, but the results that followed made a huge difference.

Alcaraz fell in the semi-finals of Indian Wells to Daniil Medvedev and in the third round of Miami to Sebastian Korda, opening the door for his rival. Sinner stepped up to add 2,000 points to his total with a flawless performance in March.

Sinner boasts a season record of 19-2, according to the Infosys ATP win-loss index, and gained momentum by becoming the first man in history to win the “Sunshine Double” without dropping a set.

But Sinner is still behind Alcaraz by a wide margin of 1,190 points, right? It’s true, but the pressure is on the world number 1.

Alcaraz will defend 4,300 points in his next European clay court swing. Last year the Spaniard triumphed at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome and Roland Garros, while he also reached the final at the Open Banc Sabadell in Barcelona. By contrast, Sinner has just 1,950 points to defend, and none until Rome in May.

Alcaraz will begin his 65th week as world No. 1 on Monday, one shy of Sinner’s total of 66 weeks. But the 22-year-old is under a lot of pressure from Sinner, who enters the clay season in a good position to make a push to regain world No. 1.

Credit: https://www.atptour.com/it/news/alcaraz-sinner-pif-atp-rankings-projection-post-miami-2026

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