Only a player can dethrone Sinner at the US Open

Carlos Alcaraz in his first outing on hard courts after losing to Novak Djokovic in Paris was eliminated in Cincinnati by Gael Monfils: a surprising comeback victory for the French tennis player with a score of 4-6 7-6 6-4. This is certainly a heavy defeat for the Spanish tennis player especially with regards to the ATP ranking, given that last year he had reached the final also lost against Nole. But this defeat also affects the discussion of the seedings in view of the US Open.

The draw for the US Open will be made next week and the seedings will be drawn up with the rankings on Monday. At the moment only Jannik Sinner is sure of his position as a seed. The world number 1 will remain number 1 in the ranking regardless of what happens in Cincinnati and therefore will be seeded number 1 in New York. The issue of seeds numbers 2, 3 and 4 is more complicated at the moment.

At the moment number 2 in the world is Novak Djokovic, who is the defending champion in Cincinnati, but is not present at the tournament in Ohio. Therefore his 8,460 ranking points on Monday will become 7,460 because he loses the thousand points of the victory in 2023. The defeat against Gael Monfils in Cincinnati has led to the fact that Alcaraz will not be able to return to number 2 in the world on Monday and will therefore not be seeded number 2 in New York.

It is not even certain that he will be seeded number 3. Because he could also be overtaken by Alexander Zverev. In fact, if the German player wins the tournament in Cincinnati, in one fell swoop he would overtake both Djokovic and Alcaraz – who is at 7,360 points – reaching 7,635 points. In this case Sinner and Zverev would be on opposite sides of the draw with Djokovic number 3 and Alcaraz number 4 drawn in the two different halves. Should Zverev not win in Cincinnati, Sinner and Djokovic would be on opposite sides of the New York draw,…