Alexander Zverev was in control of the No. 2 ranking behind Jannik Sinner for the first three months of the 2025 campaign, but it has been a back-and-forth battle with Carlos Alcaraz since the start of the European clay-court swing.
In a furious fight for the No. 2 seed at next month’s French Open, Alcaraz took over the second spot in the ATP rankings by winning the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters last week. However, that didn’t last long. Zverev’s triumph at the BMW Open in Munich combined with Alcaraz’s loss to Holger Rune in the Barcelona Open final moved the German back in front.
Zverev stands at 8085 points to Alcaraz’s 8050.
In reality, though, Alcaraz has the inside track on the No. 2 seed in Paris. The 21-year-old has only 200 points to defend between now and then, with the Mutua Madrid Open and Internazionali BNL d’Italia still to play. In 2024 he lost to eventual champion Andrey Rublev in the Madrid quarterfinals and did not play the next Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. Zverev has 1100 points to defend during the same stretch–100 from the Madrid fourth round and 1000 from the Rome title.
That means Alcaraz is effectively 865 points ahead of Zverev (900 fewer points to defend minus his current deficit of 35).
The goal, of course, is to guarantee being on the opposite side of the Roland Garros draw from Sinner. Despite having been suspended for almost three months now, the reigning U.S. Open and Australian Open champion still owns a significant lead atop the rankings with 9930 points. Sinner is able to return next month in Rome and also has Hamburg on his schedule as he prepares for the season’s second Grand Slam.
still think Zverev has a chance