Carlos Alcaraz of Spain with his winners trophy in the locker room after victory against Alex De Minaur of Australia in the Men’s Singles Final match on Day Seven of the cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club on June 25, 2023 in London, England.
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Carlos Alcaraz replaced Novak Djokovic at No. 1 in the ATP rankings on Monday, meaning the 20-year-old Spaniard is expected to have the top seeding at Wimbledon.
Alcaraz, the reigning U.S. Open champion, is coming off the first grass-court title of his career, which he won Sunday by beating Alex De Minaur in the final at Queen’s Club in London, and that helped him rise one spot from No. 2.
Djokovic, who picked up his men’s-record 23rd Grand Slam title at the French Open this month, chose not to play any tuneup tournaments on grass ahead of Wimbledon and slid down one place.
It is the sixth time the No. 1 ranking has switched in 2023, the most since it happened seven times in 2018.
Play begins at Wimbledon on July 3.
The All England Club will announce the men’s and women’s seeds Wednesday and is expected to simply follow the ATP and WTA rankings for those 32 berths in each 128-player singles draw. That would put Alcaraz and the leading woman, Iga Swiatek, in the top line of each bracket.
Swiatek remained at No. 1 — as she has for every week since first climbing to that position in April 2022 — on Monday, a little more than two weeks after she won the French Open for the third time. Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka kept her hold on No. 2, and defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is at No. 3. Jessica Pegula moved up to No. 4, switching with No. 5 Caroline Garcia.
Wimbledon’s seedings used to be based on a formula that took into account players’ recent success there and at other events contested on grass courts. But with only the rankings mattering now, there is the unusual situation of even last year’s results at the All England Club not mattering — because the ATP and WTA chose to withhold all rankings points that would have been earned at Wimbledon in 2022 to protest the club’s decision to ban players from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine.
That war continues, but the club is allowing Russians and Belarusians to compete this time.
Djokovic has won Wimbledon each of the past four times it was held — in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022; the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic — and seven times in all.
“I mean, Novak is the main…
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