Daniil Medvedev enters the US Open as the No. 1 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings but there will be fireworks at Flushing Meadows, where five players have a chance to claim the top spot.
When players next Monday drop their 2021 US Open points, Nadal will be in pole position to recapture World No. 1 for the first time since 2 February 2020. Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud need deep runs to challenge him.
Since Nadal did not compete last year in New York, he is not defending any points. When 2021 champion Medvedev drops the 2,000 points he is defending, Nadal will be No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings with 5,630 points.
Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings Points (as of 29 August)
Player
Points
1) Rafael Nadal
5,630
2) Alexander Zverev
5,040*
3) Daniil Medvedev
4,885
4) Stefanos Tsitsipas
4,800
5) Carlos Alcaraz
4,740
6) Casper Ruud
4,650
*Zverev is not competing in the US Open due to an ankle injury The 36-year-old lefty will have a 590-point lead over Alexander Zverev, who does not have a chance to claim No. 1 because he is not competing at the US Open due to an ankle injury. Medvedev, who has held World No. 1 since the week of 13 June, will be 745 points behind.
Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Alcaraz and Ruud will all need to at least reach the US Open final to have an opportunity to leave New York as World No. 1.
Tsitsipas will be confident after reaching the Western & Southern Open final. However, the Greek has not moved past the third round at Flushing Meadows in four previous appearances.
Alcaraz, who defeated Tsitsipas at last year's US Open en route to the quarter-finals, has a chance to make history. If the 19-year-old Spaniard climbs to World No. 1 on 12 September, he will become the youngest No. 1 in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history, breaking the record Lleyton Hewitt set in November 2001 as a 20-year-old.
Ruud, who has climbed as high as World No. 5, can become the first Norwegian in Pepperstone ATP Rankings history to reach World No. 1.
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ATP Masters 1000, which debuted as a series in 1990, features the best men's tennis players at nine top tournaments on the ATP Tour calendar. Champions at Masters 1000 events earn 1,000 Pepperstone ATP Rankings points.
Masters 1000 Reigning Champions
Taylor Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz, Pablo Carreno Busta and Borna Coric joined the list of ATP Masters 1000 champions in 2022. Fritz kicked off proceedings by winning his hometown title at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells by defeating Rafael Nadal, a winner of 36 Masters 1000 titles.
An 18-year-old Alcaraz clinched his first Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open presented by Itau, while fellow Spaniard Carreno Busta joined the elite club at the age of 31, in August at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers. Alcaraz backed up his Miami triumph with an impressive run in May at the Mutua Madrid Open, defeating Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev in succession.
Coric continued the parade of first-time Masters 1000 champions, as he became the lowest-ranked titlist in the history of the Western & Southern Open, propelling him 123 spots to No. 29 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
There have been 75 different champions crowned since the Masters 1000 series began in 1990. Only six players have won more than 10 Masters 1000 titles. With his victory at the 2021 Rolex Paris Masters, Novak Djokovic took sole possession of the ATP Masters 1000 titles record, breaking the record he previously shared with Rafael Nadal. He took his Masters 1000 haul to 38 by winning the 2022 Internazionali BNL d'Italia.
Player
Titles
Novak Djokovic
38
Rafael Nadal
36
Roger Federer
28
Andre Agassi
17
Andy Murray
14
Pete Sampras
11
Masters 1000 Win Leaders
Rafael Nadal leads Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the battle among Masters 1000 match win leaders, with the Spaniard pulling ahead of the Swiss at the 2019 Rolex Paris Masters. Nadal first broke Federer's long-held record in August 2019, with his 379th Masters 1000 victory at this elite level during the Coupe Rogers. Stan Wawrinka entered the Top 10 leaderboard after reaching the third round at the 2019 BNP Paribas Open, overtaking Tommy Haas (144-107 match record).
Player
W-L
Titles
Rafael Nadal
406-87
36
Novak Djokovic
381-83
38
Roger Federer
381-108
28
Andy Murray
223-91
14
Andre Agassi
209-73
17
Tomas Berdych
191-117
1
Pete Sampras
190-70
11
David Ferrer
189-122
1
Andy Roddick
157-70
5
Stan Wawrinka
157-111
1
* numbers following 2022 Western & Southern Open
Masters 1000 Greatest Champions
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan dominate the titles leaderboard for the Masters 1000 tournaments.
City
Singles
Doubles
Indian Wells
Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer (5)
Mark Knowles, Daniel Nestor (4)
Miami
Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic (6)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (6)
Monte-Carlo
Rafael Nadal (11)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (6)
Madrid
Rafael Nadal (5)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Daniel Nestor (5)
Rome
Rafael Nadal (10)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (4)
Canada
Rafael Nadal (5)
Mahesh Bhupathi, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (5)
Cincinnati
Roger Federer (7)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Daniel Nestor (5)
Shanghai
Novak Djokovic (4)
Marcelo Melo (3)
Paris
Novak Djokovic (6)
Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (4)
Masters 1000 Sweeps
The "Sunshine Double", winning Indian Wells and Miami in the same season, has been achieved 12 different times since the series began in 1990, most recently by Roger Federer in 2017. The fall Masters 1000 sweep has been completed five times, twice by Novak Djokovic, while four players have won Canada and Cincinnati back-to-back. Rafael Nadal, the most recent player to accomplish the North American summer sweep, is also the only one to have captured all three clay Masters 1000 titles consecutively.
ATP Masters 1000 Sunshine Double (Indian Wells, Miami) 2017: Roger Federer
2016: Novak Djokovic
2015: Novak Djokovic
2014: Novak Djokovic
2011: Novak Djokovic
2006: Roger Federer
2005: Roger Federer
2001: Andre Agassi
1998: Marcelo Rios
1994: Pete Sampras
1992: Michael Chang
1991: Jim Courier
ATP Masters 1000 Spring Sweep (Clay)
2010: Rafael Nadal (Monte-Carlo, Rome, Madrid)
ATP Masters 1000 Summer Sweep 2013: Rafael Nadal (Montreal, Cincinnati)
2003: Andy Roddick (Montreal, Cincinnati)
1998: Patrick Rafter (Toronto, Cincinnati)
1995: Andre Agassi (Montreal, Cincinnati)
ATP Masters 1000 Fall Sweep 2016: Andy Murray (Shanghai, Paris)
2015: Novak Djokovic (Shanghai, Paris)
2013: Novak Djokovic (Shanghai, Paris)
2007: David Nalbandian (Madrid, Paris)
2004: Marat Safin (Madrid, Paris)
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Big Four Dominance At Masters 1000
From 2008 Madrid through 2017 Madrid, Novak Djokovic (26), Rafael Nadal (18), Andy Murray (13) and Roger Federer (12) combined to capture 69 of the 78 Masters 1000 titles (88.5%). During that stretch, only six other players won their first Masters 1000 title:
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2008 Paris)
Ivan Ljubicic (2010 Indian Wells)
Robin Soderling (2010 Paris)
David Ferrer (2012 Paris)
Stan Wawrinka (2014 Monte-Carlo)
Marin Cilic (2016 Cincinnati).
In comparison, in the 21 series events from 2017 Rome to 2019 Cincinnati, nine players won their first Masters 1000 title:
Alexander Zverev (2017 Rome)
Grigor Dimitrov (2017 Cincinnati)
Jack Sock (2017 Paris)
Juan Martin del Potro (2018 Indian Wells)
John Isner (2018 Miami)
Karen Khachanov (2018 Paris)
Dominic Thiem (2019 Indian Wells)
Fabio Fognini (2019 Monte-Carlo)
Daniil Medvedev (2019 Cincinnati)
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Borna Coric crowned a remarkable injury comeback Sunday when he captured his first ATP Masters 1000 title, overcoming Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(0), 6-2 in the Western & Southern Open final.
The Croatian, who was competing in his first tour-level final since 2020, defeated Rafael Nadal en route to his second Masters 1000 final. With the pressure on, Coric demonstrated courage against the Greek, rallying from 1-4 in the first set, before he blitzed his way past the fourth seed in the second set to triumph after one hour and 57 minutes in Cincinnati.
Coric missed the majority of last season due to a shoulder injury and entered the Cincinnati draw with a protected ranking, sitting at No. 152 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. However, he is up to No. 29 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings following his fairytale run, while he has improved to 2-1 in his ATP Head2Head series against Tsitsipas.
“It was a very, very tough match. At the beginning I wasn’t playing very well and he was pushing me very hard. But I started to serve better and play better and I was fighting hard,” Coric said in his on-court interview. “Then in the second set I thought I played the best set of the whole year.”
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Coric dropped just one set during his run to the championship match in his sixth appearance at the hard-court event, also defeating Lorenzo Musetti, Nadal, Roberto Bautista Agut, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Cameron Norrie. The 25-year-old has now clinched three tour-level titles, having soared to success on clay in Marrakech in 2017 and on grass Halle in 2018.
“Thank you to my parents, who are not here, my sister and my team. It has been very tough for us,” Coric added during the trophy ceremony. “With my physio, if I didn’t have him I wouldn’t be on the court... Then of course to my tennis coach, Mate. We have been working very hard and now we are here.”
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Tsitsipas flew out of the blocks in an enthralling first set as he opened his shoulders to race into a 4-1 lead. Coric showed signs of nerves in the opening exchanges, but started to settle as the set went on. The Croatian began to find his spots on serve, while he hit with greater depth and pace off the ground to claw back to 4-4. With a tie-break left to decide the first set, it was Coric who raced into top gear, capitalising on untimely errors from Tsitsipas to lead.
After hitting 18 winners in the opener, the 25-year-old continued to look comfortable at the start of the second set. Coric hit his water-tight groundstrokes with consistency on return and gained the decisive break in the sixth game of the set against a tiring Tsitsipas. The Croatian, who committed just 14 unforced errors, then fended off pressure from Tsitsipas when serving, before he broke again to earn the biggest win of his career.
Coric looked to step inside the baseline and attack Tsitsipas in the second set in a move that worked. As shown in his INSIGHTS: Conversion Score, the Croatian was clinical, holding a conversion rate of 87 per cent, well above the 66 per cent Tour average.
Tsitsipas was aiming to capture his third Masters 1000 title and 10th tour-level trophy. The Greek, who retained the title in Monte Carlo in April, edged Daniil Medvedev in a hard-fought semi-final win and is up to No. 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.
The 24-year-old has also risen to second in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he looks to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for a fourth consecutive season. He lifted the trophy at the season finale on debut in 2019.
Did You Know?
Coric is the first player to win a Masters 1000 title and an ATP Challenger Tour title in the same season since Mikael Pernfors in 1993. It's only happened three times since ATP Masters 1000 debuted as a series in 1990. Coric won a Challenger Trophy in Parma, Italy, in June.
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The fourth and final Grand Slam of the season will see reigning champion Daniil Medvedev and four-time winner Rafael Nadal lead the field at the US Open.
Here's what you need to know ahead of the tournament in New York:
When is the US Open?
The 2022 US Open will be held from 29 August – 11 September. The hard-court Grand Slam tournament, established in 1881, will take place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, United States. The tournament director is Stacey Allaster.
Who is playing at the 2022 Western & Southern Open?
The US Open will feature stars including World No. 1 Medvedev, 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal, two-time ATP Masters 1000 titlist Carlos Alcaraz and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
When is the draw for the US Open?
The US Open draw will be made Thursday, 25 August at a time to be confirmed.
What is the schedule for the US Open?
*Qualifying: Tuesday 23 August-Friday 26 August
*Main Draw: Monday 29 August-Sunday 11 September at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
*Doubles Final: Saturday 10 September at TBC.
*Singles Final: Sunday 11 September at 4:00 p.m.
Daniil Medvedev won the 2021 US Open title with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Novak Djokovic in the championship match. Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury lifted the doubles trophy, defeating Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
Who holds the US Open record for most titles, oldest champion, youngest champion and more?
Honour Roll (Open Era)
Most Titles, Singles: Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras (5)
Most Titles, Doubles: Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Daniel Nestor (5)
Oldest Champion: Ken Rosewall, 35, in 1970
Youngest Champion: Pete Sampras, 19, in 1990
Highest-Ranked Champion: No. 1 Jimmy Connors in 1974, 1976, 1978, John McEnroe in 1981, 1984, Ivan Lendl in 1986-87, Pete Sampras in 1996, Roger Federer in 2004-07, Rafael Nadal in 2010, 2017, Novak Djokovic in 2011, 2015
Lowest-Ranked Champion: No. 20 Andre Agassi in 1994
Last Home Champion: Andy Roddick in 2003
Most Match Wins: Jimmy Connors (98)
