The No. 1 Novak Djokovic is not playing now, but in the next two months, on the court, he will be there. When and where? Who knows?

Yes, the No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz is playing this week in Beijing at the China Open. He does have a chance to finish No. 1, but he has a lot more work to do. However, he still is psyched. He will also play in Shanghai, next week, an ATP 1000.

“We have really beautiful battle for the No. 1 spot after the great performance Djokovic had in the American season, let’s say. He’s the No. 1 right now,” the Spaniard said.  

“I’m coming here with extra motivation to try to recover it in the Race, of course, in the ranking. It’s something that I have in my mind every time that I practice, in every tournament.  Is not obligatory for me to recover that, but of course you have to put the goals in the year. So for me No. 1 spot is one of the main goals for me.”

The 20-year-old Alcaraz has won 12 titles, including in the 2023 Wimbledon, on the grass, and also in Indian Wells on the hard courts, as well as Madrid on clay. Over the past couple years, he has gone deep all over the place, but  he has not won in Asia, or China. But he is ready to go.

The former No. 1 Daniil Medvedev is there, in the tournament, and the Russian will push himself again, or he hopes, so. At the U.S. Open against Djokovic in the final, he looked very good in the second set, but in the tiebreaker, he missed a really important shot, with a set point, and then he collapsed. In the third set, he was done. He has played against Alcaraz three times this year,  at Indian Wells and Wimbledon, when he lost, but in the semis at the US Open, he played a great show, and he beat him.

“If we face each other, we are both happy, we are both in the final. That’s a good goal, to try to make this happen,” the Russian said. “At the same time, as I said, so many good players. It’s tough. … It’s going to be interesting to see who copes up better. I think we’re going to see a lot of different results where the seeded players can lose and stuff like this because first rounds are never easy.”

What he means it that there are so many very good players in the top 20 in Beijing, including — and there are a lot, such as Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev, Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud and Alexander Zverev, who just won a title in Chengdu. The No. 13 Tommy Paul will face against Medvedev, and to reach into the top 10 for the first time, he will be so satisfied. But can Paul win it in three sets against the Russian in Beijing? Possibly, but he is going to have to drag him down.

Rune was very honest, saying that the No. 4 played it to much this year. Now the 20-year-old feel much better.

“I was struggling with back injury for a while now. I got it fixed,” the Dane said. “I played a lot of tournaments with a lot of pain in my back. But then I was like at the end, Okay, I got to stop and fix it, not come back to playing tournaments until I’m hundred percent. That’s also why I’m here…Maybe a few tournaments too much where I should have maybe rested. Also to be maybe more ready for the biggest tournaments. But that’s the past. Now I have to look at now and forward.”