Rankings as at 10 September 2023

                                            August 2023       10 September 2023

1       Novak Djokovic               9795                         11795

2       Carlos Alcaraz                  9815                           8535

3       Danill Medvedev              6170                           7280     

4         Holger Rune                   4790                           4710

5        Stefanos Tsitsipas            4580                           4615    

6       Andrey Rublev                  4515                           4515

7        Jannik Sinner                    4645                          4465

8        Taylor Fritz                       3605                          3755

9       Casper Ruud                      4715                          3560

10      Alexander Zverev             2670                          3030     *

11      Frances Tiafoe                  3050                          2690

12     Tommy Paul                      2570                          2660

13      Alex de Minaur                 2595                          2595

14      Felix Auger-Aliassime      2375                          2340    

15      Karen Khachanov            2855                           2135   *

16      Hubert Hurkacz                2035                           2035

17      Cameron Norrie               2075                           1985      

18     Lorenzo Musetti               2005                           1970

20     Grigor Dimitrov                1690                           1800 

20      Ben  Shelton                     1015                          1735  

21      Franscisco Cerundolo      1600                           1635

22     Nicolas Jarry                     1439                           1494

23    Jan-Lennard Struff             1461                           1494

24     Tallon Griekspoor              1440                          1446

25     Alejandro  Davidovich Fokina      1525               1435 

The  top 2 candidates qualifying to play in this tournament is Alcaraz and Rune - but they are likely to play in Torino and will not play in this tournament.    So the top 10 players qualifying for this tournament will be the following to date, but some of the players may play in minor tournaments next week which may require updating:-

1     Ben Shelton                                   1415    

2     Lorenzo Musetti                            1300     *

3      Arthur Fils                                      953           

4     Luca van Assche                            597

5     Dominic Stricker                           576  

6     Alex Michelsen                              518      

7     Hamad  Medjedovic                       485

8     Arthur Casaux                                 455      *

9     Flavio Cobolli                                 430       *                   

10   Terrence Atmane                             376

There is no way that Carlos Alcaraz will retain his number 1 ranking after the US Open.    He will lose 2000  points he gained in 2022 by winning he tournament.   Even by winning the US Open he will return to the ranking points he has at present, while Djokovic will lose no points and can only gain points by winning matches in 2023. since he did not pl ay last year in the US Open.   .    

The quarterfinals looks very interesting.   In this case there is only ranked players left in the quarterfinals and my comments are as follows:-

Top Half of the Draw

The fact is that Zverev has moved up into the Top 10 ranking and h woud like to consolidate his position by beating Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.   His chances are small - I would say 20% at best.

Medvedev is also the firm favorite to beat Rublev in the other quarterfinal.   Rublev would battle on - if he wins this quarterfinal he would move up from 6 to the number 4 ranking on Monday.   He will also solidify his  number 5  ranking in the race to Turyn.   

Although there will be some real battles I think that the semi-final will be between Alcaraz and Medvedev.

Bottom Half of the Draw

Not so sure about the outcome of the matches in this part of the Draw.    Djokovic played no matches against seeded players thus far and he coms up  against his first seeded player against Fritz in this half of the Draw.    I would have made Djokovic the firm favorite to win in this match - but bearing in mind his questionable performance against the unseeded Djere - not even the second ranked player in Serbia - I think the outcome will be a toss-up.   The other part will be the crowd support that would favor Fritz heavily.

The other two Americans still in contention are  Tiafoe and the newly ranked Shelton - who move up from number 47 in the world rankings to number 27.   A Shelton win would move him further up to number 20 in the rankings.    That would  confirm the latter's upward mobility in the rankings.     Although the bookmakers make Tiafoe the favorite to win the quarterfnal  I think that this match is also a toss-up.               

Duplicate

To the top with  this one.   There are no ATP tournaments played this week and two APT 250 tournaments next week played in China.  Depending whoa re playing in those two tournaments I may not deal with the updating of this thread before 30 September 2023.   

I may just use this thead to update he results next week and nto start a nedw hread about next week - but that depends on who is playing in the tournaments ne week.   If any Top 20 players play in the two China torunaments I amy change my mind on that issue.      

These rankings will be updated once the two tournaments at present on the go has been finalized tomorrow.    and then the real competition will restart with a number of matches strating next week. with the APT 500 China Open  and APT250 Astana Open next week.   

That is followed by the Shangai Masters tiournament in the following week.  After thjat there are a number of torunaments to be completed by early November 2023 to be completed by mid-Nov ember 2023 followed  by a tournament br eak in late November - with the Australian season srtarting on 1 January 2024.    .