Carlos Alcaraz, champion of the Indian Wells 1,000 Masters for the second consecutive year, left the California desert to go to the Florida beach revitalized to compete in the Miami Masters 1,000 this week.
Alcaraz will defend in Miami the 360 points he obtained last year by reaching the semifinals in which he lost against the Italian Jannik Sinner by 7-6 (4), 4-6 and 2-6 and will also have the possibility of reaching 280 points from Serbian Novak Djokovic before starting the European tour on clay.
The young tennis player from Murcia, 20 years old and who in 2022 took the title in Miami when he beat the Norwegian Casper Ruud in the final by 7-5 and 6-4, had not had a good start to the year with his KO in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the defeat in the semifinals of the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires and the abandonment at the first opportunity in the ATP 500 in Rio Janeiro due to a sprained right ankle that there is no reason to remember anymore.
However, in Indian Wells, considered the fifth Grand Slam, he gave his best to clear up doubts and show that he is back. His victory in the final by 7-6 (5) and 6-1 against the Russian Daniil Medvedev, in addition to giving him his first trophy of the course and his thirteenth as a professional, consolidates him as number 2 in the international ranking with 8,805 points, which They are 920 less than the 9,725 that Djokovic has, who gave up competing this week on the hard court of the Hard Rock Stadium to focus on preparing for the tournaments he will face on clay.
The 36-year-old Balkan has just fallen against all odds against the young Italian Luca Nardi, who is number 123 in the world, in the third round of Indian Wells by 4-6, 6-3 and 3-6, you can see His advantage at the top of the ATP list has been cut but he will not lose his privileged position for the moment.
The one from El Palmar would cut 640 points from the one from Belgrade if he wins in Miami, where he will start as first seed and would only meet Sinner, a priori his most qualified rival as number 3 in the world, in the final.
Thus, a title for Juan Carlos Ferrero's pupil in Florida would allow him to step on the heels of the one who has been leading the circuit for the last 26 weeks, those that have passed since he won the United States Open last September, the moment in which who ousted Alcaraz precisely.
As of today, after Novak and Carlos comes Sinner, with 8,310 -495 points less than the Spaniard-; Medvedev, with 7,765; and quite further away is the German Alexander Zverev, with 5,060.
The top 10 is completed by the Russian Andrey Rublev, with 4,970; the Danish Holger Rune, with 3,875; Ruud, with 3,560; the Polish Hubert Hurkacz, with 3,370; and the Australian Alex de Minaur, with 3,300. The second Spaniard is Alejandro Davidovich from Malaga, twenty-eighth with 1,425.
In the race of the year, the one that leads to the Masters Cup that will close the ATP year in mid-November in Turin, first place goes to Sinner, who won the Australian Open and the ATP 500 in Rotterdam before falling in the semifinals of Indian Wells against Alcaraz by 1-6, 6-3 and 6-2, and that totals 2,900 points.
There the Murcian is third with 1,500 counting the 1,000 points he obtained in that Masters 1,000, and between them is Medvedev, with 2,150. Next are Zverev, with 1,435; and De Minaur, with 1,395.
