Carlos Alcaraz is not thinking about the first position in the ATP ranking right now, but he just wants to do well in Indian Wells and get closer to the second place occupied by Alexander Zverev. After reaching the final at the 2025 Australian Open, the German ace has significantly lowered his level and his results have been disastrous in the last month.
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Sascha confirmed that he did not have a particularly positive feeling with the first Masters 1000 of the season and was immediately eliminated by Tallon Griekspoor, who took advantage of the chance available to him to take another very significant victory after beating Daniil Medvedev in Dubai.
The German will lose 200 points because he reached the quarterfinals in California last year. That means that if Alcaraz lifts the trophy for the third time in a row next Sunday he will be just 425 points behind Sascha in the ATP ranking.
The 21-year-old from Murcia will be able to earn further points at the Miami Open, where his 2024 run had stopped against Grigor Dimitrov in the quarterfinals.
Alcaraz undermines Zverev
Carlitos' debut at Indian Wells was very brilliant and the Spaniard showed that he did not particularly suffer from the change of surface decided by the organizers after 25 years, which made the courts slower than before.
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After easily defeating French ace Halys in the second round, the 4-time Grand Slam champion will need to raise his level against Denis Shapovalov in the next round.
The Canadian star who seemed to have lost his way at the highest level started the 2025 season quite convincingly, even lifting a trophy in Dallas last month.
'Shapo' has the right talent to put even the top players in trouble and Carlos will have to stay focused in every phase of the match.
The former world number 1 has a theoretical chance of dethroning Jannik Sinner by May, but he would need a series of mind-blowing results that make such an overtaking quite unlikely.
