By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 8, 2024
It took all of seven days for Alex de Minaur to achieve a long-term career goal in 2024. The Aussie cracked the Top-10 for the first time in Monday’s ATP rankings, becoming the first man from Australia to hold a Top-10 ranking since Lleyton Hewitt in July of 2006.
De Minaur, who won three of four singles matches at United Cup, including wins over Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and World No.1 Novak Djokovic, will now set his sights on the Australian Open, where he has reached the round of 16 in consecutive seasons.
De Minaur jumps two spots in the rankings to No.10, while Taylor Fritz jumps back two spots to No.12.
Mannarino Cracks Top 20
Hard work has also paid off for 35-year-old Frenchman Adrian Mannarino. The talented southpaw makes his Top 20 debut at No.20, rising two spots on the strength of his performance at United Cup, where he went 1-3 with a win over Lorenzo Sonego.
Russia’s Roman Safiullin, Who reached the semifinals at Brisbane, also clicks to a career-high. The 26-year-old rises three spots to No.36. Safiullin was outside of the Top-100 as recently as last May.
Austria's Sebastian Ofner, who reached the Hong Kong semifinals last week, also gets to a career-high at No.37.
Safiullin’s compatriot Pavel Kotov also hits a career-high at No.64 – the 25-year-old was a quarterfinalist at Hong Kong.
China’s Shang Juncheng, who reached his maiden ATP semifinal at Hong Kong, was also a big riser. The 18-year-old jumped 41 spots to a career-high at 142.
Djokovic 406 Weeks at No.1
Novak Djokovic maintains a 2200 point lead over Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the rankings. The 24-time major champion owning 11,055 points to 8855 for Alcaraz.
The ATP’s Top-5 was unchanged this week, with Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev rounding out the top five. Alexander Zverev flip-flopped with Stefanos Tsitsipas, the German rising to No.6 while Tsitsipas drops to seven.