Carlos Alcaraz suffered the pain of a shock Shanghai Masters exit on Thursday and Jannik Sinner’s run to the semi-finals has made things even worse for the Spaniard.

Alcaraz and Sinner were fancied to do battle in the last four this weekend, and while Sinner held up his end of the bargain by dominating Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz was dismantled in straight sets by 30th seed Tomas Machac.

Coupled with Alcaraz’s defeat, Sinner’s run to the semis has made it mathematically impossible for the 21-year-old to catch him at the top of the world rankings before the end of the season.

Sitting on 11,320 live ranking points – exactly 4,200 more than second-place Alcaraz – Sinner is guaranteed to top the pile at year-end for the first time in his career.

The Italian worked his way up to world No 1 in June and he has not looked back since, with overall victories at the Halle Open, Cincinnati Masters and US Open solidifying his status as the planet’s best.

Alcaraz ended 2022 at the summit of the rankings and the honour went to Novak Djokovic last year, but Sinner is deserving of the top spot this time round after opening his Grand Slam account with triumphs at Flushing Meadows and in Australia.

With his bid to catch Sinner before the end of December now over, Alcaraz will look to round off his season by winning the Davis Cup with Spain next month. The tournament in Malaga will also serve as Rafael Nadal’s farewell after the veteran announced his upcoming retirement on Thursday.

Sinner, meanwhile, is gearing up to try and take down Machac, and Alcaraz has suggested that he could be in for a mightily tough test. “I felt like I was playing against a top-five player,” he said after the defeat. “I waited for him to give me a chance, to open a window, but he didn’t.

“From the first to the last game, his level was very high. His ball speed is incredible. I felt good on the court. I hit well, moved well. But, to be honest, there was a point where I didn’t know what to do. Every time I hit a forehand, it was a winner, or the next shot he hit was a winner. It was crazy.

“He pressured me to the limit, to the point where I had to think about where to place the ball in the most correct spot possible or he would make me run all over.”