Carlos Alcaraz continues to make history even when he is not playing tournaments.
Alcaraz won the Australian Open last month, but the Spaniard has not played a tournament since then.
Despite his absence from the ATP Tour, Alcaraz still had a big impact on men’s tennis over the past week.
The 22-year-old has now broken a record of four-time Grand Slam champion Jim Courier, as Alcaraz continues his reign as world number one this week.
Carlos Alcaraz surpasses Jim Courier after spending his 59th week as world number one
Alcaraz is currently in his sixth reign as world number one, after regaining his position over Jannik Sinner at the end of the 2026 season.
Following the latest update in the ATP rankings, Alcaraz has now spent 59 weeks at the top of men’s tennis.
This puts the seven-time Grand Slam champion into 13th in the all-time history list, as he already moves ahead of Courier, who sent a message to Alcaraz after he won the Australian Open.
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The next target will now be Sinner, who Alcaraz will be looking to overtake in terms of weeks as number one.
While catching Sinner seems realistic, Alcaraz still has some way to go before he has spent the same number of weeks as world number one as Novak Djokovic, who tops this list with 428 weeks in the position.
| ATP Players who have been world number one | Total weeks as world number one |
| Novak Djokovic | 428 |
| Roger Federer | 310 |
| Pete Sampras | 286 |
| Ivan Lendl | 270 |
| Jimmy Connors | 268 |
| Rafael Nadal | 209 |
| John McEnroe | 170 |
| Bjorn Borg | 109 |
| Andre Agassi | 101 |
| Lleyton Hewitt | 80 |
| Stefan Edberg | 72 |
| Jannik Sinner | 66 |
| Carlos Alcaraz | 59* |
| Jim Courier | 58 |
When is Carlos Alcaraz guaranteed to be world number one until?
Following his impressive start to the season after winning the Australian Open for the first time, Alcaraz now has a healthy lead at the top of the ATP rankings.
Alcaraz currently leads world number two Sinner by 2,850 points, and he has an even greater advantage over world number three Djokovic, who he leads by a huge 7,870 points.
| ATP Rankings | Current Ranking Point totals |
| 1. Carlos Alcaraz | 13,150 |
| 2. Jannik Sinner | 10,300 |
This means that Alcaraz is now assured of his spot at the top of the ATP rankings until at least the Miami Open, which would put him on 64 weeks as world number one.
However, due to Sinner’s three month ban last year, he does not have any ranking points to defend until May now, giving him an opportunity to close the gap on Alcaraz.
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While Alcaraz has more points to defend than Sinner in this time, he does have a big opportunity to gain ranking points at the Miami Open in particular after losing his only match at the tournament last year.
Before then, both Alcaraz and Sinner will compete at the Qatar Open, with the potential of a first final against each other in 2026.
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