Year-end world No 1 contenders shying away from talking about top spot

Carlos Alcaraz’s main rival for the world No 1 spot, Rafael Nadal, has shown a persistent lack of interest in this soap opera which has everything to make the end of the season exciting

Entree de Hugo Gaston (Fra) || 211681_0266 2021 ATP master1000 MASTERS masters1000 paris rolex spo sport tennis

Cédric Rouquette

November 2, 2022

It will take more than that to stifle our pleasure in following the Rolex Paris Masters 2022. But when Rafael Nadal broke out a bemused smile on Tuesday, the one that means he is preparing a little phrase to keep in mind, we understood that our reading of the tournament was about to change.

“To be clear, as I understand, it’s an interesting point for you, because you are talking about fighting for be No. 1,” Nadal said when the media broached the subject before the tournament.

“I don’t fight to be No. 1, you know? I just fight to keep being competitive in every event that I played.”

Nadal was quick to point out that those days, for him, are over.

“Something that I said since long time ago: I will not fight anymore to be No. 1,” he said. “I did in the past. I achieved that goal a couple of times of my career that I have been very, very happy and proud about achieving that.

“But I am in a moment of my tennis career that I don’t fight to be No. 1.”

It’s now officially a recurring them for Nadal. He said much the same thing, verbatim, in 2020, in the same chair, from the same basement room of the Accor Arena.

Rafael Nadal, Rolex Paris Masters 2022 | Federico Pestellini / Panoramic

On Sunday, Cédric Pioline, the tournament director, had placed the race for the world No 1 spot at the heart of many good reasons to follow the last Masters 1000 of the season. But after listening to the world’s best players as they arrived in Paris over the past two days, not just Nadal, the impression is that this is not really a soap opera for those involved.

Seeing Novak Djokovic get confused by claiming that Carlos Alcaraz had already secured the season-ending world No 1 sport, which is not true, was like the fog that surrounds the throne, even if there are four players in the current top five who can still finish the year on top, three of whom have never experienced this success, against a backdrop of generational rivalry.

I am in a moment of my tennis career that I don’t fight to be No. 1.
— Rafael Nadal

ATP RANKING BEFORE THE ROLEX PARIS MASTERS
Carlos Alcaraz: 6730 points
Rafael Nadal: 5810 points
Daniil Medvedev: 5655 points [out of the running, too many points to defend].
Casper Ruud: 5510 points
Stefanos Tsitsipas: 5035 points

The contrast with 2021 is striking. A year ago, at the end of a gruelling season in which he came within one match of equalling Rod Laver’s 1969 calendar Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic chose to come to the Paris Masters precisely because he wanted to finish the year ranked No 1 for the seventh time, a record. He achieved this in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2020, giving substance to this “dream come true”, to use his words from 2020 when he equalled his idol Pete Sampras.

Ferrero knows exactly what he’s going through, how he can help him mentally, not only game-wise, to handle all of the pressures of being No. 1 and all of a sudden everybody wants to dethrone you.”
Novak Djokovic on Carlos Alcaraz and his coach

To give this achievement the flavour it deserved, Djokovic brought his family from Serbia and made sure he lived the moment in front of his children. It was one of the highlights of his career.

Novak Djokovic, Rolex Paris Masters 2021 – © AI / Reuters / Panoramic

Alcaraz, who has held the position for nearly two months, is not in a position to fan the flames like Djokovic at the top of his game. The youngest-ever world No 1 at 19 – which earned him a nice trophy on centre court on Monday – he still needs to keep it to make his season complete.

To do so, he will need to perform at a level close to his spring or late summer form, a pace that has not been his since the US Open (three wins, thee losses).

The Spaniard is at that point in his career where everything is going too fast and everything is too good, where his status suddenly creates an obligation of results and unfiltered pressure, without having been able to take the time to organise himself and find new protection mechanisms.

“He deserves to be in that position, because of the results he had,” Novak Djokovic said on Tuesday in Paris. “I mean, the results are the biggest kind of measurement for the rankings that you can have.

“He won a slam. He was consistently playing well. Won two, I think, Masters events. He’s where he is. Even though he’s only 19, he plays with a lot of maturity. We know he plays with a lot of energy.”

Djokovic adds that Alcaraz has the perfect coach to help him weather the media maelstrom that comes with his newfound status on tour.

“He has a great coach, someone that has been in his shoes, former No. 1, Ferrero. I think it’s a perfect combination of two of them. Ferrero knows exactly what he’s going through, how he can help him mentally, not only game-wise, to handle all of the pressures of being No. 1 and all of a sudden everybody wants to dethrone you.”

There are great players behind me, and they have the chances, as well.
Carlos Alcaraz

That’s why the Juan-Carlos Ferrero protégé is only paying lip service to his ambition two weeks before his first ATP Finals. “I don’t feel the pressure. I just put that goal myself, you know, to end as the No. 1,” Alcaraz said on Monday. “But of course is really tough one. There is great players behind me, and they have the chances, as well.

“So I don’t take that as a pressure. Just trying to show my best in every tournament to, I mean, keep playing, you know, keep going up.”

It is also understood that knee discomfort is preventing him from playing with the release and power that made him irresistible between February and September.

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Alcaraz says he wants to “show my best”, while Nadal has resurrected the famous “try my best”: these two phrases tell of the extreme modesty of the two Spaniards in the face of the fascinating battle they refuse to wage explicitly.

The 36-year-old father has other reasons to keep a low profile. He has been injured three times this season (ribs in Indian Wells, foot in Rome and Roland Garros, abdomen at Wimbledon), he knows he has no major indoor record worthy of his status since the Madrid Masters 1000 in 2005, and he has experienced the agonies of withdrawals and end-of-season forfeits in Paris.

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But the Manacor player also has some prestigious carrots if he wants to do violence to his nature. The winner of two Grand Slam titles this year (and 22 out of 23 matches at this level) notably has no points to defend in either Paris or Turin, although his rivals don’t have much either.

ATP POINTS TO DEFEND AT THE ROLEX PARIS MASTERS
Alcaraz: 90 points (1.33% of his total)
Nadal: 0 points (0%)
Medvedev: 600 points (10.6%)
Ruud: 180 points (3.2%)
Tsitsipas: 0 points (0%)

If the show is not going well, it is perhaps also because it is unbalanced. On paper, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas can take the top spot if the planets align for them. But no one is seriously thinking about it.

We might add that we don’t wish it on them: to be number one on the ATP in 2022 without having won a Grand Slam or a Masters 1000 (Ruud), without having done better than a semi-final in a major (Tsitsipas) would be commented on as an incongruity, perhaps by the interested parties themselves.

Ruud, the world No 4, has also been struggling for consistency since the US Open (three wins, all against players outside the top 100; three losses, all against players outside the top 50 before his first-round match against Richard Gasquet) after an extraordinary season.

Tsitsipas has found his feet since his shocking first-round loss at the US Open, but his level is currently that of a Tour finalist, beaten in Stockholm by Holger Rune and in Astana by Djokovic. The Greek has not put in a top performance since he won the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 in April.