Tennis: Alcaraz eager to reclaim top ranking from Djokovic

BUENOS AIRES – A near four-month stint on the sidelines saw Carlos Alcaraz lose the world No. 1 ranking to Novak Djokovic and as the Spaniard prepares for his return to the court at the Argentina Open this week, he says he is determined to get it back.

The 19-year-old climbed to the top of the ATP rankings in September after winning his first Grand Slam title at the US Open, but had been out of action since a torn abdominal muscle forced him out of the Paris Masters in November.

After 20 weeks at the top, Alcaraz slipped to No. 2 in January when Djokovic won the Australian Open.

“It has been a long time (I spent) at No. 1,” said Alcaraz, who begins his season in Buenos Aires this morning (Singapore time) against Serbian Laslo Djere in the second round.

“Now it’s a goal for me to recover No. 1 and try to do my best in these tournaments to be back on that number.”

But he also did not want to put too much expectation on himself in his first tournament since November.

“I’m feeling great. I’m getting used to these conditions, so at the moment, I’m feeling well,” he said.

“It’s going to be really, really tough to win the tournament. My hope is to feel that I am okay with the injury.”

Regardless of how he progresses, he has support from International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty.

Tennis lost two of its all-time greats in 2022 with the retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams but Haggerty says the future of the game is in safe hands with the rise of a sparkling generation of young players like Alcaraz.

“I go back to when I was younger and would hear some of the same concerns that were raised when Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier... when that generation was retiring,” he said.

“And we’ve seen that the void that people thought might be there... I say the same thing today.

“We have had good matches on the men’s side with Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. In the Australian Open, we saw some of the young American players come through to the quarter-finals.”

Haggerty said the women’s game was also in fine fettle with Roland Garros and US Open winner Iga Swiatek filling the void left by former world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty’s retirement.

In tennis action this week, top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and title-holder Felix Auger-Aliassime eased into the second round of the Rotterdam ATP 500 tournament on Tuesday.

Tsitsipas beat Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5, 6-1 while Auger-Aliassime dispatched Lorenzo Sonego 6-2, 6-3. REUTERS, AFP