Italian castling in the Spanish game – Kommersant

At the end of Internazionali BNL Italia, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters 1000 tournament in Rome with a prize fund of €7.7 million, there will be a rare change in the world ranking leader for May. The first racket of the world will be 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, who will be ahead of Novak Djokovic. To do this, the young Spaniard, who has already won four titles this season, including three on clay, just needs to go on court on Saturday in a match against his compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinollas.

The rising Internazionali BNL Italia is, as usual, the last major clay match before Roland Garros. After its completion, less than a week will remain before the start of the French Open. In this segment of the season, the leaders of the men’s world classification change extremely rarely. In the entire 50-year history of the ATP rankings, this has happened only five times in May, more than three times less than in August, and two times less than in June or July. The fact is that the strongest clay specialists more often than hard specialists confirm their rating points – just remember Rafael Nadal, and the Masters, in terms of rating, are still not as important as the Grand Slam tournaments. . However, this year, the first May castling at the top of the rankings in five years is inevitable. Through Monday, May 22, there will be Carlos Alcaraz, who will be ahead of Novak Djokovic.

Recall that in the last six months, only these two players, representing different stellar generations, have been arguing for the first place. Last fall, having won the US Open at the age of 19, Alcaraz overtook Russian Daniil Medvedev and soon became the youngest leader in the world classification at the end of the entire season. At the end of January, thanks to his triumph at the Australian Open, the 35-year-old Serb took the lead. In mid-March, after winning the Masters in Indian Wells, Alcaraz again came out on top for two weeks, but in early April, Djokovic again switched places with a young competitor. Then he was ahead of the Spaniard by 380 points, and it seemed that the status quo could last at least until the end of Roland Garros. Indeed, during the clay season, two tennis players needed to confirm almost the same number of points: Djokovic – 1880, and Alcaraz – 1870.

However, in April, the Serb’s affairs developed according to a bad scenario. Having won only one match each in Monte Carlo and Banja Luka, he also suffered an injury to his right elbow, due to which he was forced to miss the Madrid Masters in early May. Alcaraz, in turn, at first felt unprepared for the clay season and refused to play in Monte Carlo, but then defended his last year’s titles in Barcelona and Madrid. Thus, the backlog of the Spaniard from the Serb today is scanty – only five points. And since Djokovic won in Rome 12 months ago and earned 1000 points, which now need to be defended, while Alcaraz then withdrew before the start, the Serb will now lose the title of the strongest even in the event of the most successful development of events for himself. Indeed, unlike tournaments of categories 500 and 250 at the Masters, all participants in the main draw are entitled to at least 10 points, which are guaranteed to Alcaraz on Saturday even if he unexpectedly loses to his 35-year-old compatriot, 72nd racket Albert Ramos-Vinollas .

Djokovic will, of course, be looking to reclaim the tennis crown. Indeed, on May 15, he will start his 387th week in first place (this, by the way, is an absolute record), and there is not so much left for him to reach the round figure of 400 weeks – about three months. However, predictions for the further course of his struggle with Alcaraz will make sense after the end of the Roman tournament, because if the Spaniard plays well there, he will go into a big gap.

So far, it is only clear that Ramos-Vinollas is not the most convenient opponent for Alcaraz. Although the score of their meetings is 3:0 in favor of the favorite of the Italian Open, all three of his previous matches with Ramos-Vinollas were very stubborn. Djokovic has already reached the 1/16 finals and after a difficult victory over the Argentinean Thomas Martin Etcheverri with a score of 7:6 (7:5), 6:2, he will play with the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. This is a very experienced master, so the Serbian, given his limited playing practice in recent weeks, will have to pass a serious test of strength.

Evgeny Fedyakov