Carlos Alcaraz of Spain has had an incredible rise in the last 12 months, so much so that it has made him the youngest World No.1 of all time in the ATP rankings. Additionally, he has achieved this feat twice already despite winning just the US Open last year amongst all Grand Slams. On the other hand, Novak Djokovic has bounced back in 2023 to win the Australian and French Open titles to climb to the No.2 spot.
The competition is all set to heat up in the coming days as the Wimbledon men’s singles semifinals await all of us tennis enthusiasts. On one hand, Alcaraz will take on World No.3 Daniil Medvedev while Djokovic will have World No.8 Jannik Sinner to beat in order to make it to the July 16 Final. But it seems that Alcaraz has the upper hand over Djokovic and not the other way around as presumed by a section of the tennis community.
Carlos Alcaraz has one massive advantage over Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic may not show his obsession for the No.1 ranking on the surface anymore like he did in the past, but he sure does care for it still at large. In a recent interview with one of his long-time fans, Djokovic in fact opined that the number of times a player achieves the No.1 ranking, especially towards the year-end, is a greater measure of success than Grand Slam victories. Having the all-time record of staying at the top for nearly 380 weeks is no mean feat.
If he wishes to add to that tally, he has only one way to go about it, which is surely something he would be focusing on the most at the moment – Win both the semi-final and final of the Wimbledon Championships. Defeating an in-form Sinner and Alcaraz back-to-back might prove to be his biggest challenge in years, but definitely never out of question because it is Novak Djokovic who is being talked about.
However, if Djokovic happens to lose the semi-final by chance, then Alcaraz will surely retain the No.1 ranking even if the Spaniard too loses his crunch tie with Medvedev. This is because the 20-year-old leads Djokovic by 80 points with 7,675 points. Should both the players win respectively, then the much predicted final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic will be a direct shootout not just for the Wimbledon Championship but also to decide the clear World No.1 at least till the ATP World Tour Finals. The winner takes home a whopping 2,000 points.
In the unlikely event of Alcaraz losing the semi-final but Djokovic winning his, Djokovic will surely become the No.1. Yet he will be once again challenged closely by Medvedev himself, as the runner-up gets 1,200 points while semi-finalists get just 720 points. At present, the Russian stands at No.3 with 5,890 points. Should Medvedev lose the semi-final or the final, he will still exit with the same ranking. He had a small shot at the No.1 ranking but could not achieve it since neither Alcaraz nor Djokovic suffered an early loss in the competition.
Will Alcaraz vs Djokovic 2023 be like Federer vs Nadal 2008?
Interestingly, the most famous instance of a Wimbledon men’s singles final being played by 2 players who were in the fray of the No.1 ranking was the iconic 2008 one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. At that point, Federer was still the No.1. However, he had lost the French Open final prior to the tournament to Nadal himself. It didn’t help the Swiss maestro that his biggest rival not only had a great ‘clay swing’, but had also won the Queen’s tournament in the leadup, the first grass court title of his career. Nadal came into the final on a 23-match winning streak and the rest is history.
The only difference in that scenario is that Rafael Nadal became the World No.1 only a month and a half after beating Roger Federer. Yet it was evident by then that Nadal went beyond just being the best ‘second best’ player and actually overtaking Federer as the sport’s most supreme men’s player at the time.
15 years later and the World No.1 ranking is wide open for grabs again, but on this instance the King will be crowned immediately after the final. If the final occurs between Alcaraz and Djokovic, it could well determine apart from the rankings too, that who is truly the best currently in the sport. While Djokovic has all the accomplishments and records to back his claim, Alcaraz’s rise and improving versatility has impressed many with the belief that this could be the Spaniard’s best chance to stamp his authority over the veteran and the men’s game.
