Carlos Alcaraz admits how much he is thinking about closing the gap on world number one Jannik Sinner after his opening win at Indian Wells

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Carlos Alcaraz has made a winning start to his Indian Wells title defence after beating Quentin Halys.

Alcaraz will be bidding for Indian Wells history this year after winning the Masters 1000 tournament in both 2023 and 2024.

Despite being a four-time Grand Slam champion, Alcaraz is constantly looking to improve and revealed the shot that he had been working on of ahead of Indian Wells.

As he looks to win a third consecutive title this year, Alcaraz has been labelled the Indian Wells favourite.

Alcaraz has also been handed a boost, with rivals Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic out of Indian Wells after losing their opening matches.

Not only have both Zverev and Djokovic already exited Indian Wells, but world number one Jannik Sinner is also not present at the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the year.

Carlos Alcaraz explains how much he is thinking about the world number one ranking

Sinner is currently banned from tennis until May 4, after accepting a three month plea from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

This came after Sinner tested positive for the banned substance clostebol at Indian Wells last year, but was adjudged to have not been in at fault due to contamination.

Alcaraz spoke about Sinner’s absence ahead of Indian Wells, and has now been asked about how much of a goal closing the gap on the world number one is.

When speaking in his post-match press conference after beating Halys, Alcaraz admitted that it was on his mind, but was not his top focus.

“Well, it’s something that it is in the mind, but I’m not really focusing on it,” said Alcaraz. “Because in every tournament I just focus on myself, I focus on, okay, I really want to play good tennis, I am focused on how I can be better, better player.

“You know, if I’m doing the right things in every tournament, the number one is gonna come after. So if I’m thinking about the number one, I have to do good results, I have to win tournaments.

“If I’m focusing on it just to recover the number one I’m putting extra pressure on myself, which I don’t want it. So I just keep going, focus on the things that I have to improve on myself, and we will see.

“But right now, even though Jannik is not here, it’s really difficult to recover the number one. So let’s see in a couple of weeks.”

What is the current gap between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz?

Alcaraz currently sits on 7,510 points and is the world number three behind Sinner and Zverev.

As the defending champion at Indian Wells, Alcaraz cannot gain any ranking points at the Californian tournament, but can bridge a bit of the gap between himself and Zverev.

Sinner will drop most of his points during his ban at the Miami Open, where he is the defending champion and will see 1,000 points coming from his current total.

While Zverev has the least amount of points to defend until the Italian Open, which is when Sinner is set to return to action.

With Alcaraz the only of the top three ranked ATP players left competing at Indian Wells, he will now move onto his third round match against the in-form Denis Shapovalov.