Flag to Alexander Zverev

Failure to defend the Roland Garros 2022 title makes Novak Djokovic Not only missed the opportunity to equal Rafael Nadal’s 21 Grand Slam record, but also definitely lost the world number one position on the ATP rankings.

Djokovic gave up the opportunity to Alexander Zverev, who now holds the right to decide his fate in the battle for the top spot. If the German wins Roland Garros, on June 6, the day after the biggest tournament on clay ends, he will become the 28th player in history to reach the top of men’s tennis. world.

In the event that Zverev is unable to lift his first Grand Slam trophy, Djokovic will have another week in the No. 1 position – extending his record to 373 weeks at the top of the ATP table. The all-time record is held by female legend Steffi Graf with 377 weeks.

Alexander Zverev will be number 1 in the world if he wins Roland Garros 2022

Zverev plays his next match at Roland Garros, facing the tournament’s record 13-time champion Nadal in the semi-finals on June 4. The German will climb to No. 2 in his career next week if he takes the runner-up at Roland Garros, and will retain the No. 3 in the world in the event of a defeat to Nadal.

However, Zverev will be guaranteed at least the world No. 2 spot on June 13, despite his form for the rest of the tournament.

At that time, Djokovic was deducted 2,000 points for the 2021 Roland Garros championship, and officially dropped to 3rd in the world. Last year’s clay Grand Slam took place a week later than this year. The 360 ​​points that Djokovic won thanks to this year’s quarterfinals will be added next week.

If Zverev does not win in Paris, Daniil Medvedev will replace Djokovic to hold the top of the ATP table. This will be the second time in his career that the Russian tennis player has climbed to the world No. Before that, he held the top spot for three weeks earlier this year, only to be reclaimed by Djokovic.

Thus, June 13 will witness a historic change when marking the first week since November 10, 2003, at least one member of the ‘Big Four’ – Djokovic, Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray – will not make the top two on the ATP rankings.

After Roland Garros, the players will focus on Wimbledon 2022. At this tournament, Zverev is likely to attend as the number one seed because Medvedev is banned from competing. At that time, Djokovic was the number two seed, if he kept the world number three position. Djokovic is currently only a few hundred points ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nadal when the grass-court season kicks off.