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ATP Rankings (30/09/24): Carlos Alcaraz - Wimbledon 2024, Adrian Mannarino - Queen's 2023
ATP Tennis Players, Carlos Alcaraz, Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments

ATP Rankings (30/09/24): Carlos Alcaraz returns to World No.2 with Beijing title


After two main tour events took place over the past week, we have another midweek update of the ATP rankings for you.

There were ATP 500 tournaments in both Beijing and Tokyo, with Carlos Alcaraz and Arthur Fils coming out as the respective champions.

After winning his first title since Wimbledon, Alcaraz has leapfrogged Alexander Zverev to return to the second spot in the rankings.

Arthur Fils is less familiar with ATP titles than Alcaraz, but is starting to build an impressive catalogue for himself after lifting his second 500 level trophy of the year.

The Frenchman had an impressive run to the title in the Japanese capital after beating four top 20 players and a former Wimbledon finalist, closing in on a career-high after rising three places to World No.21.

Big Movers

While Alcaraz and Fils are the stories of the week on the main ATP Tour, it is actually Brit Jacob Fearnley who is the biggest riser inside the top 100.

Fearnley has had an almighty rise since graduating from Texas University, with the Scotsman ranked as low as No.525 just over three months ago.

However, after winning his fourth Challenger title of the season in Orleans, France, the 23-year-old has climbed a further 28 spots to reach a career-high of World No.98.

What is more scary for the rest of the field is that Fearnley only has 75 ranking points to defend until June next year.

Another breakout star from the past week is Chinese youngster Yunchaokete Bu, who continued his impressive Asian hard court swing.

The week prior, Bu had reached his maiden ATP semi-final in Hangzhou and now has become the first Chinese male to reach the Beijing semi-finals after beating top 10 player Andrey Rublev.

Bu has now solidified his place inside the top 100, rising 27 places upto No.69 in the rankings.

It was not just about the young stars this week, with 34-year-old Kei Nishikori having a resurgent week at his home tournament in Tokyo.

The former World No.4 beat Marin Cilic and Jordan Thompson to reach the Japan Open quarter-finals, and even had a match point against Holger Rune to progress even further.

Nishikori has subsequently made a meteoric rise up the rankings after jumping 47 spaces up to World No.153, and has already won his opening match at the Shanghai Masters this week.

Some of the other significant risers this week include Ugo Humbert (+4 to No.15), Alex Michelsen (+6 to No.43), Pavel Kotov (+7 to No.56), Roman Safiullin (+8 to No.61), Christopher O’Connell (+8 to No.71), Alexander Ritschard (+22 to No.99), Harold Mayot (+8 to No.107), Jesper De Jong (+10 to No.118), Mackenzie McDonald (+21 to No.151), Juan Manuel Cerundolo (+52 to No.154), Marc-Andrea Huesler (+15 to No.156) and Raphael Collignon (+27 to No.164).

It was a less successful week for Adrian Mannarino, who dropped 200 points from his ATP ranking this week from winning the Astana title at the same time last year.

And the 36-year-old has suffered another early defeat already, losing in the first round of the Shanghai Masters, as he falls to his lowest ranking since March 2023 of No.53.

Mannarino is not the only player to have fallen this week, with Sebastian Korda (-3 to No.19), Sebastian Ofner (-12 to No.70), Duje Ajdukovic (-9 to No.117), Luca Van Assche (-10 to No.121), Thiago Agustin Tirante (-27 to No.124), Richard Gasquet (-13 to No.133), Hamad Medjedovic (-27 to No.162), Gijs Brouwer (-10 to No.172), Tomas Barrios Vera (-14 to No.173), Sho Shimabukuro (-16 to No.181) and Gustavo Heide (-32 to No.188) also doing so.

ATP Rankings Top 20 (30/09/24)

Here is the latest update of the top 20 in the ATP rankings, with Carlos Alcaraz back in second spot after his triumph in the Chinese capital:

RankingPlayerTournaments PlayedPoints
1Jannik Sinner 1811,010
2Carlos Alcaraz ↑1177,010
3Alexander Zverev ↓1226,705
4Novak Djokovic 185,560
5Daniil Medvedev 185,375
6Andrey Rublev 254,700
7Taylor Fritz 234,060
8Hubert Hurkacz  234,060
9Casper Ruud 233,965
10Grigor Dimitrov 193,840
11Alex de Minaur 223,620
12Stefanos Tsitsipas 233,390
13Tommy Paul 213,045
14Holger Rune 252,935
15Ugo Humbert ↑4272,645
16Ben Shelton ↑1262,580
17Frances Tiafoe ↓2262,560
18Lorenzo Musetti 302,425
19Sebastian Korda ↓3232,380
20Jack Draper 232,340

For a full list of the rankings, visit the official ATP website

Race to the ATP Finals in Turin (30/09/24)

The ATP Finals are a highly anticipated event that take place at the end of each year, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams from the tennis season.

While there were more big stars in action this week, there has not been too many major shifts in the race to Turin, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz having already qualified for the year-end ATP Finals:

1. Jannik Sinner – 9330 points (Qualified)

2. Carlos Alcaraz (↑1) – 6510 points (Qualified)

3. Alexander Zverev (↓1) – 6115 points (Qualified)

4. Daniil Medvedev – 4620 points

5. Taylor Fritz – 3890 points

6. Casper Ruud – 3795 points

7. Andrey Rublev – 3570 points

8. Alex de Minaur  – 3305 points

9. Novak Djokovic – 3260 points

10. Grigor Dimitrov – 2835 points

Next week

The next couple of weeks are all about the Shanghai Masters on the main ATP Tour, with action already underway in the Chinese municipality.

Top seeds at the Masters 1000 event are Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, with the latter returning to the tournament that he has won on a record four occasions for the first time since 2019.

However, it is not all about the Shanghai Masters, with ATP Challenger events taking place in Argentina, France, Spain, Portugal, China and the United States of America.

READ MORE – Tennis on TV Next Week: How to watch the Shanghai Masters, China Open and more!

ATP Rankings rules

ATP rankings track and rank all the players on tour over a 52-week period. Points are awarded for performance, with the biggest tournaments giving out the most points over the course of the year.

Those rankings are then used to determine a number of things, such as seedings at tournaments and deciding who qualifies for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin.

ATP rankings points awarded/tournament

The following points are awarded for the different tiers of tournaments on the ATP Tour, with some slight alterations made for the 2024 season:

Tournament categoryWFSFQFR16R32R64R128Q
ATP Tour 
Grand Slam20001300800400200100501030
ATP Finals+900
(1500 max)		+400
(1000 max)		200 for each round robin match win
(600 max)
ATP Masters 100010006504002001005010 (30)(10)30 (20)
ATP 50050033020010050(25)25 (16)
ATP 2502501651005025(13)13 (8)

Admissible tournaments

To prevent players from manipulating the rankings by playing a large amount of smaller tournaments, only 19 tournaments are admissible over the course of the year to make up a ranking.

That number does not include the ATP Finals, with that treated as an extra earned opportunity to win rankings points. However, the bigger and most prestigious tournaments are considered ‘mandatory’ entries. For example, if a player lost in round one of a Grand Slam, they would not be permitted to omit it from their ranking in favour of an ATP 250 which earned them more points.

Therefore, players who compete at all the mandatory events in a season will have the following breakdown of admissible rankings points:

  • 4 Grand Slams
  • 8 Masters 1000
  • 7 ‘Best Other’ performances

The rankings always cover the previous 52-week period, so any points won further back than that are deducted from a player’s total. That player will, though, have the chance to ‘defend’ their points by repeating or improving upon their previous performance.

An example would be a player who was a defeated finalist at the Australian Open in 2024 will have 1300 points deducted from their ranking following the 2025 final. Those points would then be replaced by those won at the 2025 tournament.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.