Carlos Alcaraz got a big help while Alexander Zverev faced a setback, just days before the US Open.
Carlos Alcaraz hasn’t played a competitive match since mid-April, but he’s still moved up the world rankings ahead of his much-anticipated comeback this month.
The 23-year-old has been out since withdrawing from his match against Tomáš Macháč at the Barcelona Open nearly four months ago. It was later revealed that he has a serious right wrist injury, called tenosynovitis, which made him miss the rest of the clay-court season and the whole grass-court season.
Because of this, Alcaraz couldn’t defend his French Open title in June and also had to skip Wimbledon, where he was runner-up last year.
He’s aiming to return at the Cincinnati Open later this month, hoping to get back in top form in time for the US Open early next month.
Even though Alcaraz hasn’t played in almost four months, and Alexander Zverev is having the best season of his career, they have swapped places in the latest ATP world rankings. Alcaraz is now No. 2, just ahead of Zverev at No. 3. This happened partly because of a change in the tournament schedule this year.
Zverev will be the top seed at the Canadian tournament starting Tuesday but has lost 360 ranking points compared to last year.
In the top ten, Jannik Sinner is still No. 1, with Felix Auger Aliassime and Novak Djokovic holding steady at No. 4 and No. 5. Daniil Medvedev moved up to No. 6, Alex de Minaur slipped to No. 7, Flavio Cobolli reached a career-high No. 8, Taylor Fritz went up to No. 9, and Ben Shelton dropped to No. 10.
A big jump in the rankings belongs to French player Arthur Gea, who moved up 45 spots to No. 82, while Canadian Denis Shapovalov climbed 25 places to No. 43.
Alcaraz has said he plans to play with more power than ever when he’s back. On a recent episode of Rennae Stubbs’ Tennis Podcast, Serena Williams’ coach talked about Alcaraz’s comeback.
“Word on the street is he plans to play Cincinnati,” she said. “If that’s true, I can’t imagine he would have gone back to Spain. He’s probably practicing hard on a hard court somewhere, getting ready. Tennis fans will be so happy to see him back.”
She also shared a message Alcaraz sent to her on Instagram in late June. “Sometimes he replies to me,” Stubbs said. “When I told him it was great to see him hitting balls again, he said, ‘Hopefully, soon I will be hitting it harder.’”