By Jürgen Fritz, Mon 21 Feb 2022, Cover photo: © JFB

The 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz won the 500 tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Bautista Agut, Rublev and Norrie won the 250 tournaments in Doha, Marseille and Delray Beach. In the JFB Ranking, Alcaraz rises from 22 to 17 with his first D tournament win, Norrie from 13 to 12.

Carlos Alcaraz wins his first D tournament in Rio

It has been clear for some time that Carlos Alcaraz is by far the best U20 player in the world. Now the 18-year-old won his first 500 tournament (D category) in Rio de Janeiro. And the way he did it was impressive.

Due to multiple match cancellations due to rain, he had to wait from Monday to Friday for his next match and then play four matches in three days between Friday and Sunday. But the Next Generation ATP Finals winner 2021 was not at all distracted by this. He beat four Top 50 players in a row within these three days: Delbonis, Berrettini, the world No. 6, Fognini and in the final Schwartzman, the world No. 16, straight 6-4, 6-2.

Exactly two years ago, in February 2020, the then 16-year-old won his first ATP Tour match at the same venue in Rio. In May last year, Alcaraz won a 125 Challenger tournament (F category) in Portugal, then his first ATP tournament (ATP 250, E category) in Umag in July shortly after his 18th birthday, the Next Gen ATP Finals (E) in November and now his first 500 tournament (D). At 18.7 years old, Alcaraz is the youngest player to win an event in the ATP 500 Series, which was introduced in 2009.

In the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking, the Spaniard, who not only beat Berrettini (6) now for the second time in the last few months, but also Ruud (10), Tsitsipas (4) and Sinner (9), rises from 22 to 17th position. And he won’t stay there for very long either if he keeps playing like this.

Bautista Agut, Rublev and Norrie can also win tournaments

In Doha (E: ATP 250), Roberto Bautista Agut celebrated his first tournament win in three years, back in 2019, also in Doha. He beat Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final 6-3, 6-4. Last year, he had lost the final in Doha to Basilashvili after wins over Thiem and Rublev. “I am very happy”, Bautista Agut said. “It has been a while since I lifted a trophy. I have been working very hard to reach another final and to get the chance to win another title. It was a big dream for me to win a title and I have now won twice in Doha. It is very special for me and I am very happy.”

In Marseille (E) Andrey Rublev made a comeback in Marseille (E). Last week, the Russian was unable to defend his title in Rotterdam, losing 6-7, 6-4, 2-6 to Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi-finals. Yesterday, he met the 21-year-old Canadian again in the final in Marseille. And this time Rublev kept the upper hand. The 24-year-old won 7-5, 7-6 and now has another singles title to his name. He also won the Davis Cup (T) for Russia with Medvedev in December. In the JFB ranking, he is now almost on a par with Auger-Aliassime. The two are now separated by only 0.1 points.

And in Delray Beach (E) Cameron Norrie won 7-6, 7-6 against Reilly Opelka. This was Norrie’s third tournament win in recent months after Los Cabos (E) in July and Indian Wells (C), which was postponed from March to October last year. In the JFB Ranking Norrie overtakes Carreno Busta again and moves up to position 12.

Due to his non-appearance in Marseille, Medvedev „only“ holds four titles now

Daniil Medvedev lost 10 points for not playing in Marseille (E), where he won the tournament last year. He now has „only“ four tournament wins in the last 52 weeks (Zverev and Ruud 6, Djokovic, Medvedev and Nadal 4, with Ruud’s 6 titles all coming in lower-ranked E tournaments).

And this is how the current 52-week men’s world ranking looks after Rio de Janeiro (D), Doha (E), Marseille (E) and Delray Beach (E):

Here you can read how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking works.

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