World number three, Carlos Alcaraz is targeting the number one spot at the end of the season after winning the silver medal at the just-concluded Olympics in Paris.
The 21-year-old French Open and Wimbledon champion, who lost a thrilling Olympic final to Novak Djokovic, returns to action at this week’s Cincinnati Open, where he can gain ground on the Serb and Italian Jannik Sinner.
He said, “Obviously, number one is a goal every time that I’m (behind) and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year, if you end the race number one, in the rankings it’s quite similar, so you’re going to end number one.
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“So I’m really focused on that. I’m focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race. This year, ending the year as number one is one of my main goals right now.”
Last year’s Cincinnati runner-up, Alcaraz will begin his campaign against Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin as he returns to hard court tennis for the first time since reaching the Miami quarter-finals in March.
