After losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the Shanghai Masters round of 16, Carlos Alcaraz acknowledged that his hopes of ending the season as the world No. 1 were seriously broken.
The Spaniard started out well by winning the first set as he sought to advance to his 13th quarterfinal out of 14 events in 2023. However, he was unable to keep up his momentum and ultimately lost to Dimitrov 5-7 6-2 6-4.
Alcaraz suffered another blow after losing to Jannik Sinner in the China Open semifinals in his attempt to surpass Novak Djokovic and finish the season as the world No. 1 for the second consecutive year.
Alcaraz expressed his thoughts and said: “After this loss, it’s going to be tougher. If I want to be No. 1, I have a few tournaments ahead so I will try to do my best. I will try to win them if I want to have a chance to end the year as No. 1. I don’t know, but right now I have lost a lot of opportunities to make it.”
When the rankings are revised on Monday of next week, Alcaraz will be 2,240 points behind Djokovic. Alcaraz still has hope since Djokovic will have to defend a lot more points in the remaining weeks of the season.
He added: “I want to do my best in Basel, which will be my next tournament. I know that the goal of finishing number 1 this year has been very complicated for me with these last results. It is going to be difficult, but I want to try. I will try to win the next events.”
Carlos Alcaraz says his goal of ending the year as world #1 will be difficult due to his recent results, but he will keep trying:
“I want to do my best in Basel, which will be my next tournament. I know that the goal of finishing number 1 this year has been very complicated for… pic.twitter.com/5PGPpf98Nu
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) October 11, 2023
Carlos Alcaraz in 2023
LWLLWLWWWW Ranked no.2, the Spaniard played his last match on the 11th of October when he lost to world no.19 Grigor Dimitrov 5-7 6-2 6-4 in the 4th round in Shanghai (draw).
During this season the Spaniard has a 63-9 match record. Alcaraz clinched 6 titles in 2023 in Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, Barcelona, Madrid, London and Wimbledon. Carlos got to the final in Rio de Janeiro and Cincinnati.
He is also scheduled to play in Paris (Rolex Paris Masters) after Basel. The main draw will start on the 23rd of October.
Novak Djokovic in 2023
LWWWWWWLWW Ranked no.1, the Serbian played his last match on the 15th of September when he beat world no.25 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3 6-4 in the Rubber 2 of the Davis Cup (draw).
Currently, during this year Djokovic achieved an overall 46-5 win-loss record. The Serbian has won 5 titles in 2023 in Adelaide, Australian Open, French Open, Cincinnati and U.S. Open. The Serbian was the runner-up in Wimbledon.
Djokovic will compete next in Paris (Rolex Paris Masters). He will begin to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 30th of October.
Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic faced off 4 times. Their record is 2-2. Before, the last time they competed against each other, Novak Djokovic won 5-7 7-6(7) 7-6(4) in the final in Cincinnati (Western & Southern Open) on the 20th of August 2023.
Here are the highlights.
