Ranking Reaction: Novak Djokovic is on the verge of clinching his eighth year-end No. 1 finish

By winning his record-extending 40th Masters 1000 title in Paris, Novak Djokovic has increased his lead over Carlos Alcaraz in the race for year-end No. 1 to 1,490 points—9,945 to 8,455—putting him on the verge of finishing No. 1 for a record-extending eighth time.

The only way Alcaraz can become year-end No. 1 at this point is if he wins the ATP Finals undefeated, which would earn him 1,500 points, and if Djokovic doesn’t win a single match at the event—Alcaraz would then pass him by 10 points. Any other scenario and Djokovic is No. 1.

A player earns 200 points for each round-robin win at the ATP Finals, 400 points for a semifinal win and 500 points for a final win.

Djokovic already holds the record for most ATP year-end No. 1 finishes.

MOST NO. 1 FINISHES IN ATP RANKINGS HISTORY (since 1973):
7: Novak Djokovic [2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021]
6: Pete Sampras [1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998]
5: Rafael Nadal [2008, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2019]
5: Roger Federer [2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009]
5: Jimmy Connors [1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978]

A little further down the ATP rankings, Grigor Dimitrov rises from No. 17 to No. 14 today after a sensational run in Paris, where he took out Top 10 players Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the second Masters 1000 final of his career before falling to Djokovic.

And it’s a special ranking move for the Bulgarian.

This is his first time in the Top 15 in five years, since he was No. 10 the week of October 29th to November 4th, 2018. He fell to No. 19 on November 5th, 2018 after his points from winning the ATP Finals the year before dropped off, and though he’s been in and out of the Top 20 in the years since, he never returned to the Top 15—until now.

He actually fell as low as No. 78 at one point in 2019.

Now, he’s in a good position to make another run at the Top 10—he only won back-to-back matches at two of his first 10 tournaments of 2023, so he'll have a great chance of moving up in early 2024.

And after his loss to Djokovic on Sunday, he sounded very motivated.

“One thing I know for sure is that I just want to put myself in those positions every single time, which means that every time I get out there to play is like I’m there to play,” he said. “I want to make sure I capitalize on those moments, of course. This week, in quite a few matches, things could have turned completely different for me, but I was able to stay. I was able to be very good mentally and physically, as well, even though I was struggling with quite a few things.

“So all in all, there is a lot of positives that I can take from that. But also in the same time I need to look at some of the things that I can improve, some of the things that I can come back and maybe do better. I feel there are some very little details that I’m sure if I improve a little bit, it can make a very big change in my game.”

The singles and doubles finals at the WTA Finals have been pushed to Monday, so the new WTA rankings haven’t been released yet.