Now he has done it. Carlos Alcaraz can celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve as number one in the world – for the second time after 2022 The 22-year-old Spaniard ended the season as Number one. Alcaraz, who had already said goodbye in the group phase at the ATP Finals last year, also won his third group game, beating Lorenzo Musetti 6:4, 6:1 and can continue playing in Turin.
Although Musetti, next Wednesday (4 p.m.) with Italy in the Final 8 against the “KURIER Austria Davis Cup Team” was cheered on frenetically by the fans, Alcaraz was the master of the pitch and finished the match after 1:23 hours. One can assume that Alcaraz and Jannik Sinnerwho is already in the semi-finals in Turin before his last game on Friday (2 p.m., Sky) against US man Ben Shelton, will also face each other on the final Sunday.
Dominance
Depending on who is currently ahead: The duo splits the rankings and splits the tennis world. Because the third-placed German Alexander Zverev doesn’t even have half as many ATP points as the dominant two.
It goes without saying that Alcaraz and Sinner also graciously shared the Grand Slam tournaments this year. The Italian won Australian Open and WimbledonAlcaraz after defending three match points at the French Open and finally at the US Open. Who is really better is almost a matter of taste. At the beginning of the year, many saw Alcaraz ahead Thomas Musterwho was number one in the world in 1996, it is Sinner. “For me, he has more options in the long run because he is technically better and has more variations, and he was also more consistent.”
The fact is that Sinner has to defend last year’s title points at the Australian Open, but then he has free rein until May. Last year he was unable to score points due to a three-month doping ban. In the long run, it will be difficult for others to break through this phalanx anyway. Zverev was the last player in a Grand Slam final not named Alcaraz or Sinner at the Australian Open in January. Particularly bad for the competition: “The two of them are still very young and will continue to improve,” says ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer.
No wonder Alcaraz said on the sidelines of the ATP Finals: “I said in the summer at the US Open that I actually see him more often than my mother,” he said. But he “never gets tired of seeing him”. The two men get along well. And you can also see everything with a bit of humor. “The distance from him To ski is about the same size as mine Golfsays Sinner.
There is no distance in tennis.