ROME – It’s not just Grand Slam titles that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have taken turns collecting this year.
The top tennis players also trade the top rankings back and forth.
Sinner officially returned to the top of the ATP rankings on Monday after winning the Paris Masters, replacing Alcaraz, who had held the honor for nearly two months.
But due to classification calculations and rules, Alcaraz will return to first place next Monday.
The Italian and the Spaniard are separated by so few points now – Sinner leads with 11,500 points to Alcaraz’s 11,250 – that it will depend on their performances at the upcoming ATP Finals in Turin to decide who ends the year in first place.
Points drop While neither Sinner or Alcaraz are playing this week – except when the ATP Finals start on Sunday – the reason the rankings will change again next Monday is because that is the day points drop from each player’s performance in last year’s finals.
Next week, Siner will lose the 1,500 points he obtained from winning last year’s finals, while Alcaraz will lose only 200 points he obtained after failing to qualify from the group stage.
So, next Monday, the order will be as follows: Al-Karaz 11,050 and Sin 10,000.
And there is no possibility of any other player moving into the top two anytime soon since No. 3 Alexander Zverev (5,560 points), No. 4 Taylor Fritz (4,735) and No. 5 Novak Djokovic (4,580) are far behind.
Sinner and Alcaraz have amassed their huge points total by winning – among other tournaments – all four Grand Slams of the year.
Sinner won the Australian Open. Alcaraz then beat Sinner in the French Open final. Sinner got some revenge by defeating Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. Alcaraz then beat Sinner again to claim the US Open Cup.
ATP Finals Rankings What makes things more complicated is that Alcaraz will be the No. 1 seed going into the Finals — even though he won’t be ranked No. 1 entering that tournament.
This is because the finals use another classification system – the “Race to Torino” which only takes into account the points accumulated in the calendar year.
Alcaraz leads Sinner by more than 1,000 points in the race rankings.
Sinner lost ground in both disciplines during his three-month doping ban near the start of the year.
End-of-Year Scenarios Sinner needs to win the ATP Finals and hopes Alcaraz doesn’t reach the final to secure the year-end No. 1 spot for the second year in a row.
Alcaraz needs to win three matches in the finals to end 2025 at the top of the world rankings for the second time in his career. Alcaraz became the youngest player to finish a year at No. 1 when he achieved the feat as a 19-year-old in 2022.
As for the WTA rankings, Aryna Sabalenka was already ranked first at the end of the year.
Sinner enters Torino on a 10-game winning streak after winning titles in Vienna and Paris. He will be playing on his favorite court – indoor hard courts – and can expect huge support from his home fans in the finals.
Alcaraz goes to Italy after losing to Cameron Norrie in his opening match in Paris, and has often struggled when playing indoors.
Auger-Aliassime, Musetti still trying to qualify. The other players who have qualified for the finals – which includes the top eight in the race – so far are: Zverev, Djokovic, Ben Shilton, Fritz and Alex de Minaur.
Paris finalists Felix Auger-Aliassime are still in contention for the final spot, with Musetti needing to win a tournament in Athens this week to move ahead of the Canadian and qualify for the elite event in his home country.
It is also unclear whether Djokovic plans to play finals at some point in his career as he has said he is focused almost exclusively on major tournaments.
Djokovic, who withdrew from the finals last year, plays in Athens this week.
If Djokovic withdraws, both Auger-Aliassime and Musetti will qualify for the finals.
The draw for the finals is scheduled to take place on Thursday – with it still uncertain who the final qualifier will be.
