(Reuters) – After winning two consecutive Grand Slam titles and a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, world number three Carlos Alcaraz said one of his main goals for the rest of the season was to finish as the world’s top-ranked player.
The 21-year-old French Open and Wimbledon champion, who lost a thrilling Olympic final to Novak Djokovic, returns to action this week at the Cincinnati Open, where he can close the gap on the Serb and Italian Jannik Sinner.
Alcaraz is 450 points behind world number one Sinner in the ATP live race until the season finale in Turin, with the separate annual ranking serving as a benchmark for the battle for first place at the end of the year.
“Of course, my goal is always to be number one when I’m (behind) and the race is an important placing for me. At the end of the year, if you finish the race as number one, it’s pretty similar in the rankings, so you’ll finish as number one,” said Alcaraz.
“So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament and thinking about playing great tennis, getting a good result to get better in the race. Finishing this year as number one is one of my main goals right now.”
Alcaraz, last year’s runner-up in Cincinnati, will begin his campaign against Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin when he returns to hard-court tennis for the first time since reaching the quarterfinals in Miami in March.
The Cincinnati Open is an important preparation event for the US Open, which takes place from August 26 to September 8.
“I’m happy to play here again. Of course I have great memories from last year when I reached the final and lost a really close and epic match (against Djokovic),” said Alcaraz.
Djokovic withdrew from Cincinnati after his Olympic triumph.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
