How Djokovic-Sinner battle for World No. 1 took an intriguing twist

Novak Djokovic’s quest to stop Jannik Sinner from dethroning him as World No. 1 after Roland Garros took an intriguing twist this week when the Serbian accepted a wild card into the ATP 250 at the Gonet Geneva Open.

Should Djokovic advance to the final in Switzerland, Sinner would need to win the Roland Garros title to guarantee his rise to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings on 10 June, the day after the year’s second major concludes. When it seemed that Djokovic would not break with his normal routine by playing the week before a Slam, Sinner’s path to No. 1 was somewhat easier: he needed to make the final in Paris.

Should Djokovic reach the Geneva final, that would set the stage for a possible winner-takes-all Roland Garros final between Djokovic and Sinner, where the victor would walk away as World No. 1.

PIF ATP Live Rankings

Other No. 1 scenarios will also be impacted by how far Djokovic goes in Geneva, where Wednesday he won his opening-round match against Yannick Hanfmann to claim his 1,100th career match win.

Djokovic’s 6-3, 6-3 win over the German set a Thursday quarter-final Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting against sixth seed Tallon Griekspoor or Denis Shapovalov after their match was suspended Wednesday night due to rain. If the Serbian wins Thursday and reaches the semi-finals, he can give himself a chance of retaining World No. 1 after Paris by reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals (if Sinner loses early in Paris).

If Djokovic loses in the Geneva final but beats Sinner in the Roland Garros final, both players would have 10,025 PIF ATP Rankings points, but Djokovic would win the tie-break by having amassed more points during the past 52 weeks at the Grand Slams, ATP Masters 1000 mandatory tournaments and Nitto ATP Finals.

If Djokovic wins his first title of 2024 in Geneva and beats Sinner in the Paris final, he would have more points than Sinner at the end of the clay-court major.

Djokovic will have held World No. 1 for a record 428 weeks by the end of Roland Garros. Sinner is trying to become the first Italian, and 29th player overall, to reach World No. 1 in PIF ATP Rankings history.

With Djokovic defending 2,000 points at Roland Garros after winning the 2023 title, Sinner, who last year fell in the second round, will begin the tournament at No. 1 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings. A player must rise to the top of the 52-week PIF ATP Rankings to be crowned an official World No. 1.