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As I’m sure you know, the most recent ATP rankings update is heavily related to the 2023 Madrid Open. Sure, a few other events like Challengers were also played, yet it was the Madrid Open that carried the greatest opportunity to rack up points. Then again, the same is also true for the other end of the spectrum, meaning it was a tournament where some players could also lose plenty of points too. Of course, there were players that fit both categories, and I’ll be covering the biggest news stories for each right here.
Below, I will be running through the guys who have made enormous leaps up the ATP rankings thanks to their run in Madrid. And I will also be covering the guys who failed to make any inroads on the clay. It’s all discussed below, so read on to find out who has shifted where, as of the most recent ATP rankings updates.
ATP Rankings Updates – Week Commencing May 8th
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The new ATP rankings were released earlier today – May 8th, 2023. To clarify, the rankings usually update on Mondays, although the updates can carry less weight if a tournament overlaps with the planned date of adjustments. And since the Madrid Open ran through last Monday, the new rankings changes are even more significant.
On that note, let me start by running through the guys that enjoyed a truly phenomenal week at the Madrid Open.
The Week’s Biggest Climbers – Incredible Period for Karatsev, Struff, Zhang, Altmaier, and Humbert
The men’s singles event at the Madrid Open was pretty awesome, we can probably all agree! But ultimately, it was Carlos Alcaraz who emerged as champion, successfully defending his title for the second tournament running. However, while Alcaraz is obviously capturing many of the headlines, for quite a few lower-ranked guys, the Madrid Open was nothing short of a fairytale.
Starting with the biggest climber of the week by quite some distance, we have Aslan Karatsev who has jumped by an incredible 68 spots after reaching the Madrid Open semi-finals. He really has put himself back in the game because of this tournament, and he is now 53 in the world. But following Karatsev, it’s Jan-Lennard Struff who is also in the spotlight. Ironically, he lost to Karatsev in qualifying, but then beat him in the semi-finals to make the main draw. In doing so, Struff picked up plenty of points, taking his ranking up by 37 places to number 28 in the world.
Other than these guys, as you can see, it was a solid week for Zhang, Altmaier, and Humbert as well. Zhang went all the way to the quarter-finals before he was beaten by Karatsev, resulting in a rankings leap of 30 spots to number 69. He is followed by Humbert, who actually won a Challenger after losing his opening round in Madrid. Humbert has since jumped 27 places up the ladder to number 50. And finally, Altmaier mirrored his fellow countryman, Struff, by getting in as a lucky loser to the Madrid Open.
He made the most of the stroke of luck he was given and got through to the quarter-finals before losing to Coric. Thanks to this deep draw run, Altmaier is now ranked 65 in the world – a jump of 27 positions.
The Week’s Biggest Fallers – Schwartzman, Borges, and Bonzi Slip
It has been another terrible run for Diego Schwartzman this previous week. The Argentinian has maintained his rather rapid slide down the rankings by losing to a qualifier in the first round of the Madrid Open. As a result, he has moved 19 places down the ATP rankings to a new position of 91. For a guy like Diego Schwartzman, this is a terrible place to be considering that clay is his favourite surface. Yet he is joined by another top 100 player who has matched the 19 place drop this week, this time in the form of Benjamin Bonzi.
The Frenchman is now ranked 64 in the world after withdrawing from the Madrid Open before he hit a single ball. Therefore, because he didn’t compete in the tournament, he lost all of the points gained from this time last year. Of course, this has caused the drop of 19 places, putting both himself and Schwartzman as the official ‘fallers of the week’. With that said, the third guy isn’t all that far behind Bonzi and Schwartzman concerning his rankings drop. As you can see, the third biggest faller of the week is Nuno Borges.
The man from Portugal did make it into the main draw directly because of his ranking. Yet he lost to the American, Giron, in the first round. This was a surprise result that has now taken Borges down to a new ranking of 88 – a 14-place slide. As for other guys who are also in the red this week, players like Isner, Coria, Kwon, Draper, and Ramos-Vinolas are all in there with double-digit adjustments.
Top Rankings Stories – A Simply Ridiculous 68-Place Leap for Karatsev
Karatsev is a pretty interesting player, I must say. He exploded onto the scene at the 2021 Australian Open when he reached the semi-finals. It’s not unfair to say that Karatsev was by no means a household name at that point. And he backed up that tournament with a solid 2021 season, putting him right up there in the ATP rankings. However, his 2022 season was far from great, and his 2023 season has been shaky at best.
But when it came time to put his clay court shoes on and compete in Madrid, he found the magic that put him in the semis of the Australian Open just a couple of years ago. Karatsev came through qualifying to reach the semi-final in Madrid. And because his results had been so poor until this tournament, his run to the semi-final has catapulted him up the rankings by 68 positions.
This is one of the biggest rankings leaps I’ve seen in 2023 for a guy who is now well inside the top 100!
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