Ex-Federer coach Annacone criticizes the world rankings because of Zverev and Alcaraz – “There is a mistake in the system”

The ATP’s annual ranking is clear: whoever wins the most within a year is at the top. At the end of 2024, Jannik Sinner (Italy) deservedly greets us from the top with 11,830 points.

Behind: the German Alexander Zverev. The 27-year-old collected 7,915 points within a year and thus achieved his highest personal world ranking position. Zverev also overshadowed Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), who “only” collected 7,010 points.

That is exactly the stumbling block for Paul Annacone, 61, coaching legend. Roger Federer’s former coach expressed his discomfort with this situation in the “Tennis Channel” podcast.

“Zverev had an outstanding year, no question about it, and the points don’t lie,” says the American. Zverev played “incredible tennis,” said Annacone. The big ‘but’ for him, however, is: “Someone else has won two Grand Slams and is not even number two in the world. There is a flaw in the system.”

What is meant is the very Alcaraz who, according to Annacone, should be above Zverev simply because of his Grand Slam achievements, but doesn’t.

This is due to the ATP points system, which also favors those who play a lot of tournaments and are successful at Masters (1000 winning points), 500 or even 250 tournaments throughout the year.

If you compare the performances of Zverev and Alcaraz, the world rankings are of course extremely transparent. Zverev won the Masters in Rome and Paris. He also reached the finals at the French Open and in Hamburg (500). At the Australian Open, the Masters in Miami and Cincinnati as well as the ATP Finals he at least made it to the semi-finals. In total, Zverev achieved 69 match wins and 21 defeats.

The German played a total of 21 tournaments within a year, Alcaraz only played 18 due to injury, in which he had a record of 54:13 match wins. The Spaniard won the French Open (against Zverev) and Wimbledon, for which he earned 2,000 world ranking points each, as well as the Masters in Indian Wells. He also won the Beijing tournament (500). These four tournament wins were still not enough to be ahead of Zverev in the ATP ranking.

Annacone made it clear in a podcast some time ago what he thinks of Alcaraz, who is only 21 years old. He said: “If Alcaraz stays healthy, he will win a lot of Grand Slams – maybe not 20, but you never know. He has the athletic prerequisites for that.”

In total, the Spaniard already has four Grand Slam successes. Zverev, on the other hand, has not yet won a major. Annacone himself was once number twelve in the world as a player in the 80s. He later coached tennis greats Pete Sampras (1995-2001, 2002), Tim Henman (2004) and Roger Federer (2010-2013).