“The season’s not over yet”: Jannik Sinner previews battle for year-end No. 1 vs. Carlos Alcaraz

Much like on the women’s side, the ATP Year-End No. 1 will likely come down to a battle between two major champions as Jannik Sinner will be in hot pursuit to wrest the top spot back from Carlos Alcaraz by the Nitto ATP Finals.

👉 The Match in 15 Minutes: Jannik Sinner vs. Marin Cilic

‘The season's not over yet,” Sinner said after winning his first round at the China Open. “We still have here. We have Shanghai, very big. We have Paris, which is very big. Turin, Davis Cup. Still big tournaments to come. Obviously the biggest, they are gone, with the Grand Slams, and we split those.”

Sinner enjoyed an uninterrupted first reign as world No. 1 for an impressive 65 weeks, first nabbing the spot from Novak Djokovic after 2024 Roland Garros. Despite missing three months of the 2025 season due to a suspension for an anti-doping rule violation, he not only saw his lead unchallenged by the field during his absence, but the Italian also built on his lead, winning a first Wimbledon title by dethroning Alcaraz in the final.

Alcaraz got his revenge two months later by halting Sinner’s US Open title defense in the final, a match that sent Sinner back to the drawing board in an attempt to reverse a 9-5 head-to-head against the Spaniard.

“What Carlos is doing, winning many, many titles this year…Yeah, I mean, he deserves to be there,” said Sinner. “It's as simple as that. He played more tournaments, and he played all tournaments very, very well. If he was winning or making great results, he deserves to be there.”

Alcaraz currently owns 760-point lead over Sinner, the two standing head and shoulders above the field with Sinner leading world No. 3 Alexander Zverev by just under 5000 points. While Sinner is defending more points from 2024 at this stretch of the season—making the Beijing final and winning back-to-back titles at the Rolex Shanghai Masters and the ATP Finals—Alcaraz is defending his own haul from winning Beijing over Sinner last year.

All I can say is I'm very happy with the season I've played. The ranking, it comes and goes, so let's see. Jannik Sinner

The reigning Roland Garros and US Open champion showed cause for concern in his first round at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships when he appeared to injure his ankle against Sebastian Baez.

“When I planted the ankle, I was worried, because it didn't feel good at the beginning,” Alcaraz said. "I'm just happy that I was able to play good tennis after that and finish the match quite good.

“I will try to recover to do whatever it takes to be ready for the next round.”

In a similar position to Iga Swiatek, Sinner will aim not to focus too much on the ranking stakes of the next few weeks, preferring to continue employing his post-US Open tweaks on the court to put himself in even better position for the 2026 season.

“Whatever happens in Turin happens. Davis Cup is different factors,” Sinner said. “You don't play for yourself, you play for your whole country, which is even more kind of different pressure.

“Yeah, all I can say is I'm very happy with the season I've played. The ranking, it comes and goes, so let's see.”