With a lot of help from Cam Norrie at the 2025 Paris Masters, Jannik Sinner is back as the ATP No. 1. He needed to take the title to do so, but indoors on a hard court, the Italian is nearly unbeatable. He proved so again against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final.
Sinner got an early break of the Canadian, and that sealed the first set 6-4. The second set was much more difficult, with Auger-Aliassime even pressing Sinner on his serve. The Italian was able to hold throughout the match, however, and took the second set tie-break 7-4 to take home his fifth trophy of the year.
Meanwhile, Norrie defeated former No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in a second-round stunner. The only way for Sinner to reclaim the top spot, at least temporarily, was to win the title in Paris with Alcaraz losing early. Mission accomplished for now.
Jannik Sinner needs some help to stay at No. 1 on the ATP tour
Next up for Sinner and Alcaraz, the two players likely to keep switching atop the rankings for much of the next decade, is the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. The dates for the year-end ATP tournament are November 9 through 16. The chances that Alcaraz regains the top spot are great.
That is because even if Jannik Sinner wins all five of his matches, Carlos Alcaraz could do less and be in a better spot. Sinner won the Finals in 2024, so there are 1,500 points to defend. Alcaraz did not make it out of the round-robin stage.
For the Spaniard to finish as the year-end No. 1, something he has done just once and only in 2022, he will need to simply win all three of his 2025 round-robin matches, or win one or two of the round-robin matches and reach the final. Sinner cannot afford to lose even once.
That said, the ATP Finals is an indoor hard court, and that might be his best surface. He has a career record of 81-21 in those types of matches, but he is currently on a 26-match win streak on the surface. Still, he could win the ATP Finals for the second-straight year, and still lose the top ATP ranking.