Murcia, Jan 27 (EFE).- Carlos Alcaraz endured 20 consecutive weeks as world number one, a condition that he will lose next Monday, once the new ATP classification is published and that will be led by the Serbian Novak Djokovic or the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the winner of the Australian Open final between them.
The young 19-year-old tennis player from Murcia, who rose to the top of world tennis after winning the US Open on September 11, will cede that privileged position to the winner of the title in the first Grand Slam this year, a tournament in which the man from El Palmar did not appear due to the injury he suffered while training a few days before traveling to Melbourne.
Tsitsipas and Djokovic respectively beat Russian Karen Khachanov 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6) and 6-3 and American Tommy Paul 7-5, 6-1 and 6-2.
This Sunday the first Grand Slam of the season will be at stake and also the number one, which Alcaraz reached as the youngest player to achieve it and which he would surely have maintained for longer if it had not been for the misfortune that accompanied him in the last months.
Juan Carlos Ferrero’s pupil chained two injuries in a row.
On January 4, in the quarterfinal match of the Masters 1,000 in Paris-Bercy that faced the Danish Holger Rune, he suffered a tear in the internal oblique musculature of the left abdominal lateral wall that forced him to leave and, subsequently, prevented him from to play the Masters Cup in Turin, in which he was going to debut and also as the first seed. There he could have gotten up to 1,500 points.
He was also unable to play the Davis Cup Final Eight with Spain in Malaga, where he was going to lead the national team.
Already this year, specifically on January 6, he suffered an injury to the semimembranosus muscle in his right leg during training and this prevented him from competing for the title in Australia and defending his number one in a competition in which 2,000 points are awarded. To the winner.
Alcaraz will appear this Monday in second place in the ATP ranking with 6,730 points -in Melbourne he defended 90 that he obviously lost-, behind the 7,070 that Djokovic will have if he wins or the 6,995 that Tsitsipas will have in case of victory. Whoever loses the final will be third, the Serbian with 6,270 or the Greek with 6,195.
Fourth on the list is the Norwegian Casper Ruud, with 5,765; fifth the Russian Andrey Rublev, with 4,200; and sixth and Rafa Nadal, winner in Australia last year and who, when he lost in this edition in the second round, injured, against the American Mackenzie McDonald 4-6, 4-6 and 5-7, fell four positions after losing 1,955 points and stay with 3,815.
With this panorama, Alcaraz hopes to reconquer the crown once he can return to the slopes, something scheduled for mid-February at the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and for this he is already preparing thoroughly once training resumes.