The poor results of
Carlos Alcaraz
on his Argentina and Brazil tour caused
Novak Djokovic
to increase his difference at the top of the ATP ranking over the Spanish tennis player, who even sees how the Italian
Jannik Sinner
, winner in Melborne, threatens his second place.
But that is not the only salient data provided by the new publication of the classification: as of this Monday, there are eight Argentines in the Top 100, something that has not happened for two years.
Alcaraz, who reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open - losing to
Alexander Zverev
- defended many points on the clay court tour in South America, after his victory in 2023 in Buenos Aires and his final in Rio de Janeiro.
In the Buenos Aires ATP 250 he remained in the semifinals, when he stumbled against the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, and in the Rio ATP 500, last week, he retired in his debut match due to an ankle injury.
Consequence: the Spaniard loses 300 points in one week and his disadvantage with respect to Djokovic increases to 1,150 points.
And he already only has 535 more than Sinner.
And there is more from Nole.
She reached 414 weeks as number one in the world.
Not only is he the one who spent the longest time at the top of the rankings, but he has also already made two calendar years ahead of his pursuer, the now retired
Roger Federer
.
Yes, crazy no matter how you look at it.
Argentine crowd
The Argentine
Francisco Cerúndolo
rejoined the Top 20 to the detriment of the Chilean Jarry, and his compatriot
Sebastián Baez
, winner on Sunday in Rio, gained nine places and was placed in 21st place, the best ranking so far for the 23-year-old tennis player .
The big jump, however, was also made by the Argentine
Mariano Navone
, who had never entered the Top 100 and who, after surprisingly playing in the final in Rio (starting from qualifying), rose 53 places, to 60th position.
To these three we must add five other Argentines who are in the select group of the classification.
They are
Tomás Etcheverry (27°), Facundo Díaz Acosta (52°), Pedro Cachin (78°), Facundo Coria (88°) and Thiago Tirante (100°)
.
The latter, like Baez and Navone, had never been so high in the ranking.
With this number of players in the Top 100, Argentina is ranked as the third power in world tennis along with Australia, since only the United States, with 12 representatives, and France (10), have so many tennis players in the highest part of the classification.
Spain, in contrast, only has five - Carlos Alcaraz (2nd), Alejandro Davidovich (24th), Roberto Carballés (66th), Jaume Munar (70th) and Roberto Bautista (98th) -.
It is the lowest figure in the last 35 years.
It's not a record, of course.
The week of June 26, 2007, in the transition times between the end of the Argentine Legion's heyday and the beginning of the Del Potro era, national tennis had 14 exponents among the best one hundred.
They were Guillermo Cañas (17th), Juan Ignacio Chela (20th), David Nalbandian (25th), Agustín Calleri (29th), Juan Mónaco (32nd), José Acasuso (49th), Juan Martín Del Potro (56th °), Diego Roitman (71°), Mariano Zabaleta (83°), Diego Hartfield (88°), Martín Vassallo Argüello (89°), Carlos Berlocq (92), Gastón Gaudio (99°) and Juan Pablo Guzmán (100 °).
Curiously, there were no representatives among the top ten, as if it had happened in previous years.
The last one who was among the top ten was Diego Schwartzman, today far from his splendor, in 2020.
The top 20
1. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 9,855 points
2. Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 8,805
3. Jannik Sinner (ITA) 8,270
4. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 8,015
5. Andrey Rublev (RUS) 5,110
6. Alexander Zverev (GER) 5,085
7. Holger Rune (DEN) 3,700
8. Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 3,395
9. Alex De Minaur (AUS) 3,210
10. Taylor Fritz (USA) 3,150
11. Casper Ruud (NOR) 3,120 (+1)
12. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 3,080 (-1)
13. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 2,925
14. Tommy Paul (USA) 2,375
15. Karen Khachanov (RUS) 2,260 (+2)
16. Frances Tiafoe (USA) 2,155 (-1)
17. Ben Shelton (USA) 2,055 (-1)
18. Ugo Humbert (FRA) 1990
19. Adrian Mannarino (FRA) 1,950 (+1)
20. Francisco Cerúndolo (ARG) 1,840 (+2)
Argentines in the top 100
21. Sebastián Báez (ARG) 1,825 (+9)
27. Tomás Etcheverry (ARG) 1,470
52. Facundo Díaz Acosta (ARG) 948 (+7)
60. Mariano Navone 906 (+53)
78. Pedro Cachín (ARG) 754 (-2)
88. Federico Coria (ARG) 678 (-3)
100. Thiago Agustín Tirante 598 (+5)
Source: AFP