ATP rankings: Carlos Alcaraz back on top while Bublik soars to new career high

Alcaraz returns to the top of the pile as intriguing rankings battle with Djokovic continues. Meanwhile, big results for others have seen big moves

Carlos Alcaraz wins first grass-court title at Queen’s 2023 Action Plus / Panoramic

Jamie Malachy

June 26, 2023

At the start of a new week, the most significant movements in the ATP rankings come from the the two champions of last week’s events – Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Bublik.

But both Sebastian Korda and Lorenzo Musetti also reap the rewards from their impressive runs at Queen’s.

Carlos Alcaraz regains top spot

In the tantalising see-saw battle for supremacy at the top of the rankings between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, this week it is the Spaniard who finds himself at the top of the pile, following a quite brilliant debut at Queen’s last week that ended with him lifting the trophy.

This tussle for the top spot looks set to continue as, remarkably, there are only 80 ranking points separating the two players, with Alcaraz now on 7,675 compared to Djokovic’s 7,595.

This race between the top two has become one of the defining narratives of the season, with Djokovic regaining top spot in January after winning the Australian Open. Alcaraz then responded by winning Indian Wells in the Serb’s absence to briefly return to world No. 1, before relinquishing it again by failing to win the Miami Open.

A superb clay-court season handed the top spot back to the Spaniard, before Djokovic’s record-breaking triumph at Roland-Garros meant he once again returned to the top.

Now, after a first grass-court title during which he fully got to grips with the surface, Alcaraz is back ahead of his rankings rival.

As neither Alcaraz nor Djokovic are playing this week, the Spaniard is guaranteed to hold onto the world No. 1 position for the Wimbledon fortnight, meaning he will be the top seed at SW19.

Alexander Bublik reaches career-high ranking

The biggest mover of the week, however, has been Alexander Bublik. Having won the prestigious Halle Open last week, the Kazakh has been rewarded with a big surge of 22 rankings places, from No. 48 to a new career-high of No. 26.

Bublik has soared past his previous career-best of No. 30, which also means that he has guaranteed himself a seeding at Wimbledon. After such an impressive tirumph in Germany last week, it seems only fitting that the Kazakh is arguably the biggest rankings success story this week.

Both Musetti and Korda make career-high debuts

Queen’s was a very rewarding tournament for both Sebastian Korda and Lorenzo Musetti.

Musetti, who made the quarter-finals in West London, has only moved up one place in the rankings (from No. 16 to No. 15). But it marks a significant milestone as the Italian makes his Top 15 debut.

Similarly with Korda, the American made the semi-finals at Queen’s in excellent fashion, and has jumped from No. 32 to No. 25, meaning he has cracked the world’s top 25 for the first time in his career.