Carlos Alcaraz says he is ready to resume his ‘beautiful’ battle with Novak Djokovic for the No.1 ranking in men’s tennis.
The two-time Grand Slam champion is set to return to competitive action later this week in Beijing at the China Open where he is the top seed. Alcaraz hasn’t played a match since his semi-final defeat to Daniil Medvedev at the US Open. So far this season, the Spaniard has won six Tour titles with the most prestigious of those being at Wimbledon.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, the 20-year-old says returning to the top of the standings is one of his main priorities. Last year Alcaraz became the youngest player to end a season in the No.1 sport in ATP rankings history. Overall, he held the position for 36 weeks.
“For me, the number one spot is one of the main goals for me,” said Alcaraz. “In these great tournaments, I’m looking to do great to be able to close or recover that number.”
Standing in his way of achieving this goal is Djokovic who has opted not to play in Beijing this week but is expected to return to action at the Shanghai Masters. Opening the door for Alcaraz to close the points gap between him and the Serbian. It is possible that he could exit the Asian swing as No.1 depending on how he and Djokovic performs.
“We have a really beautiful battle for the number one spot after the great performance Djokovic had in the American season,” he told AFP news on media day.
This week is the first time in Alcaraz’s career that he has played a professional tournament in China. No ATP events were held in the country between 2020-2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period there were also no WTA tournaments held but their reason for doing so was also due to concerns that former player Peng Shuai was being censored by authorities after accusing a former government official of sexual assault.
Alcaraz’s first match at the China Open will be against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany.
