World No. 1 watch: Will Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz stay top of the rankings ahead of Aryna Sabalenka, Novak Djokovic?

As the North American hard-court summer ramps up this week with the combined ATP-WTA Citi Open in Washington DC, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek are ranked as the best singles players in the world.

Alcaraz has been top of the ATP rankings since winning Queen’s a month ago and is in his fourth spell as world No. 1. Swiatek, meanwhile, is into her 70th consecutive week as world No. 1, having taken over following Ashleigh Barty’s retirement in April 2022.

Both have slender leads at the moment and will have a maximum amount of ranking points to defend at the US Open, which starts on August 28.

So what will Alcaraz and Swiatek need to do to remain as world No. 1 throughout the summer? And who are their nearest challengers to take over at the top?

The ATP world No. 1 ranking has ding-donged between Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic since the former took over for the first time following his US Open win last summer.

Djokovic’s Australian Open victory earlier this year saw him get back to the summit, and he had two further stints there before Alcaraz reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking after Queen’s.

Heading into the hard-court summer, Djokovic is the only clear challenger to dislodge Alcaraz as world No. 1. But whether he can is another matter.

Alcaraz will have the chance to gain points at the Canadian Open – where he lost in the second round last year – and the Cincinnati Open – where he lost in the quarter-finals last year – but will be the defending champion at the US Open so has 2,000 points against his name.

Still, with 3,000 points on offer to Djokovic across the Cincinnati Open and US Open, there is plenty of opportunity for him to boost his ranking.

There is also the chance for Djokovic to secure the No. 1 seed at the US Open.

Daniil Medvedev is the current world No. 3 but is 2,705 points behind Alcaraz.

With that deficit and 250 points soon dropping from his Los Cabos win last year, plus 360 to defend at the Cincinnati Open from making the semis last year, it seems unlikely that Medvedev will be in contention to get to world No. 1, at least not before the US Open.

It looked like Swiatek’s streak as world No. 1 was going to come to an end at Wimbledon.

Had Aryna Sabalenka made the final she would have got to the top of the WTA rankings for the first time, but she was beaten in three sets by Ons Jabeur in the semis.

The opportunity is still within touching distance, though.

That could quickly be eroded if Sabalenka goes deep at the upcoming Canadian Open, where she was beaten in the last 16 in 2022.

Sabalenka said after Wimbledon that her focus was on securing the year-end No. 1 ranking – and denied the chance of getting to No. 1 was on her mind in her defeat to Jabeur.

“I wouldn’t say that I was thinking about that. For me, it’s more about how you finish the year than during the year – you’re first, second, you just go back and forth.

“For me, it’s more about finishing the year. I’ll keep pushing myself and do everything I can to finish this year as world No. 1.”

Following the Canadian Open, Sabalenka would need to make the final of the Cincinnati Open to gain points as she reached the semis last year.

That’s also the case at the US Open, where she lost to Swiatek in the semi-finals in 2022.

Swiatek lost in the last 16 of the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open a year ago so has room for improvement and a chance to extend her lead as world No. 1.

World No. 3 Elena Rybakina is nearly 4,000 points behind Swiatek so world No. 1 is out of the question for her at the moment.