Alcaraz Facing the Impossible: Can He Stay World No. 1 for 52 Weeks?

Carlos Alcaraz Facing an Almost Unreal Challenge: Staying World No. 1 for 52 Weeks.

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Arthur Millot

le 10/12/2025 à 15h09

1 min to read

Agassi Andre Alcaraz Carlos Borg Bjorn Connors Jimmy Courier Jim Djokovic Novak Edberg Stefan Federer Roger Hewitt Lleyton Lendl Ivan McEnroe John Nadal Rafael Sampras Pete Sinner Jannik Wilander Mats

Alcaraz Faces a Challenge: Staying No. 1 for 52 Weeks

Finishing the year 2025 as world No. 1 is already a great achievement.

But staying at the top for an entire season, without losing a single week, is a tennis feat—a performance achieved by only six players since the creation of the ATP rankings.

And especially considering the opponent standing in Alcaraz's way: the Italian Jannik Sinner.

Why Alcaraz's Reign is Threatened as Early as January

The situation is simple for Alcaraz. He has an advantage over Sinner: about 550 points, which is to say not much in modern tennis.

However, the Italian has a colossal advantage: three months without defending a single point, a consequence of his absence in 2025 due to his suspension.

In other words: every match won by Sinner during this period will add points, every poorly handled match by Alcaraz will subtract them.

A List of Legends… Hardly Accessible for Alcaraz

But if he succeeds, the native of El Palmar will join the following list:

Jimmy Connors: 1975, 1976, 1978

Roger Federer: 2005, 2006, 2007

Ivan Lendl: 1986, 1987

Pete Sampras: 1994, 1997

Novak Djokovic: 2015, 2021

Lleyton Hewitt: 2002

A Restricted… and Mythical List.

To give an idea of the task ahead, legends like Nadal, McEnroe, Agassi, Wilander, Borg, Edberg, Courier have never achieved this performance.

This shows how much Alcaraz's challenge goes beyond sports logic to enter the realm of absolute rarity.