Another week in men’s tennis brings another reminder of the chasm that separates Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner from the rest of the ATP Tour.
After world No. 1 Alcaraz dropped one set on the way to winning the Japan Open in Tokyo, Sinner dropped just a couple on his path to the China Open title. Sinner, the world No. 2, beat an overmatched Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2 Wednesday in the final in Beijing.
The two title wins do not lay bare the deficit between the top two and their contenders, but the tennis rankings do. Alcaraz is top with 11,540 points. Sinner, in second, has 10,950. Next is Alexander Zverev at No. 3, with … 5,980.
The points difference between Sinner and Zverev is 4,970. Taylor Fritz, the world No. 4 in the live rankings, has 4,995 points, so if an imaginary tennis player — call them T. Deficit — was given the ranking points separating Sinner and Zverev, they would be No. 5 in the world, ahead of Novak Djokovic.
Sinner also missed three months of this season, and several tournaments, because of an anti-doping ban.
The injury-enforced absences of Jack Draper and Ben Shelton, who are among the more exciting players within the chasing pack, have widened the gap off the court. Draper earned a comprehensive win over Alcaraz at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif. in March, while Shelton, who returns from a shoulder injury to play the Shanghai Masters later this week, has pushed Sinner and Alcaraz in their most recent encounters despite ultimately losing relatively comfortably — a more impressive showing than most of his peers.
There is at least intrigue over who will finish as the year-end world No. 1, with Sinner now in a better position to chase down his great rival after Alcaraz withdrew from the Shanghai tournament to manage “some physical issues”. The gap between Sinner and Alcaraz in the “Race to Turin,” the rankings based on points won in 2025 alone, is 2,590. The Italian can cut it by 1,000 points if he wins the Shanghai Masters for the second year in a row.
Another measure of Alcaraz and Sinner’s dominance is that only they have more top-10 wins than Tien this season. The 19-year-old American is up to No. 33 in the live rankings, and he beat four top-25 players to reach the China Open final.
After losing the first set comfortably Wednesday, he took the match to Sinner in the second, drawing gasps of approval with some of his whipped forehands but ultimately losing by the same scoreline after Sinner fended off a couple of break points. A left-hander, Tien is extremely adept at creating angles and moving his opponents into uncomfortable positions before changing pace, especially on his deceptively explosive forehand.
Sinner now enters the Shanghai Masters, to face a group of players who have earned one win against the Italian all year: Alexander Bublik’s victory at June’s Halle Open, in Germany.
(Photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)