ATP ranking: Zhang makes the history of Chinese tennis, Auger-Aliassime in Turin in the sights

Auger-Aliassime grapples and clings to his Masters dream

At the top, it’s the status quo… or almost. After a week with only ATP 250 on the schedule and eight of the top ten players in the world resting, little upset was to be expected. But Félix Auger-Aliassime continues, for his part, to garner. Titled for the second time in two weeks, the Canadian is therefore the only one to modify the order of the Top 10: now 9th, he passes in front of Taylor Fritz.

For the Canadian, however, the most important thing lies elsewhere: thanks to these 250 additional points, he consolidates his provisional 7th place in the Race (ranking since January 1), the last qualifier for the Masters which he hopes to play for the first time. In this specific ranking he now has a 340 lengths lead over Fritz, a significant cushion in this final stretch.

Berrettini finds colors, not Schwartzman

Mettero Berrettini will find it difficult to go to Turin. But his final in Naples allowed him to maintain some hope and regain the World Top 15 (14th, two places gained) to the detriment of Marin Cilic, now 16th, who lost the points of his final in Moscow l last year. But the Croatian is not the only loser of the week: beaten as soon as he enters the competition in Antwerp (his 4th consecutive defeat without counting the Laver Cup) when he was outgoing finalist, Diego Schwartzman slips two places (21st ) and left the Top 20 for the first time in over three years (week of August 26, 2019).

Young Wolves Musetti and Rune show their teeth

With Auger-Aliassime, Lorenzo Musetti and Holger Rune are the two other champions of a week animated by a triumphant youth. Both titled for the second time in their career (and in 2022) respectively in Naples and Stockholm, which is more against Berrettini and Tsitsipas, they reach new heights: 23rd and 25th, the Italian and the Dane have the Top 20 in sight and two more tournaments to reach it.

Zhang becomes the first Chinese in the Top 100, Thiem is closing in

This is undoubtedly the story of the week. For the first time since the creation of the ATP ranking in 1973, a Chinese is among the 100 best players in the world. Coming from the qualifications in Naples, Zhizhen Zhang pushed the adventure there until the quarter-finals. In all, he thus collected 57 points which allow him to display this Monday the registration number 97.

This Top 100, there is not much missing for Dominic Thiem to find it: semi-finalist for the second consecutive tournament, the Austrian doubles 19 of his colleagues and now points to 113th place at 45 small points from 100th, the Australian Jason Kubler. He is therefore not very far from validating his end-of-season objective.

Highs and lows

• They are 8 to obtain their best ranking in the Top 100. Lorenzo Musetti (23rd, +1 place), Holger Rune (25th, +2), Miomir Kecmanovic (28th, +2), Yoshihito Nishioka (37th, +2), Jack Draper (45th, +3), Pedro Cachin (55th, +2), Daniel Elahi Galan (68th, +4) and Zhizhen Zhang (97th +12) can smile.
• For others, it’s grimace soup. Jenson Brooksby (50th, -9 places), Aslan Karatsev (60th, -15), Thiago Monteiro (66th, -5), Dusan Lajovic (87th, -6), Marton Fucsovics (103rd, -12) and Marco Cecchinato (109th , -11) lose big.

The Top 20 as of 10/24