Carlos Alcaraz handed major boost at Alexander Zverev's expense just days before US Open

Carlos Alcaraz might not have played a competitive match since mid-April, but he has already climbed the world rankings ahead of his hotly anticipated return to action this month.

The 23-year-old has been sidelined since he withdrew from his match against Tomáš Macháč at the Barcelona Open almost four months ago.

It was revealed that Alcaraz had suffered severe right wrist tenosynovitis, which forced him to miss the rest of the clay-court season and the entirety of the grass-court season.

Alcaraz was unable to defend his French Open title at Roland-Garros in June and withdrew from Wimbledon, where he finished runner-up last year.

The Spaniard is targeting a return at the 2026 Cincinnati Open later this month, in the hope he regains enough sharpness to compete in the US Open early next month.

Carlos Alcaraz leapfrogs Alexander Zverev in world rankings

Alcaraz has not played a match in almost four months, while Zverev is enjoying the best season of his career, but that has not stopped them switching places in the latest ATP world rankings.

In the updated rankings released this week, Alcaraz rose to No.2 in the world ahead of Zverev in No.3, overtaking the recent Wimbledon runner-up, who also won the French Open during his injury absence.

It is all down to a scheduling change this season. A year ago, the German tennis player was already in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open, with the tournament starting at a later date this year.

Zverev will start the Canadian competition as top seed on Tuesday, but has already dropped 360 ranking points compared to the position he was in this time last year.

Elsewhere in the top ten, Jannik Sinner remains the runaway leader at No.1, while Felix Auger Aliassime and Novak Djokovic are unchanged at No.4 and No.5 respectively.

Daniil Medvedev gained a spot to become No. 6, while Alex de Minaur fell one place to No. 7, Flavio Cobolli rose one place to a career-high ranking of No. 8, Taylor Fritz rose one spot to No. 9, and Ben Shelton fell two spots to No. 10.

The biggest change to the ATP rankings saw Frenchman Arthur Gea climb 45 places to reach world No. 82, while Canadian Denis Shapovalov climbed 25 spots to reach world No. 43.

Carlos Alcaraz makes exciting promise ahead of return

Carlos Alcaraz has reportedly promised to hit the ball harder than he has ever done before when he makes his return to action.

Speaking on a recent episode of her Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Serena Williams' coach discussed Alcaraz's comeback plan.

“Word on the street is that he is going to try and play Cincinnati,” she said.

“If that is the case, I can’t imagine he would have gone back to Spain. I would imagine he would centre himself here on a hard court somewhere and practise before Cincinnati.

“It will be a great relief to tennis fans around the world to see him back playing.”

The former doubles world number one then shared what Alcaraz said in response to one of his Instagram messages at the end of June.

"Every now and again, he does respond to me on Instagram,” Stubbs added.

“When he was hitting balls, I did say it was great to see him back, and he said, ‘Hopefully, soon I will be hitting it harder’."