Carlos Alcaraz has mapped out the closing stretch of his 2026 season, with seven tournaments added to his schedule for the remainder of the year. Only four of those events will count as official ATP Tour appearances.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion has been limited to seven tournaments so far this season after a right wrist injury interrupted his campaign. He was sidelined for four months and did not return to match play until the US Open, where he reached the quarter-finals before losing in five sets to Ben Shelton.

Before the setback, Alcaraz had already picked up important results. He won the Australian Open and the Qatar Open, and also finished runner-up to Jannik Sinner at the Monte Carlo Masters. His year, however, was badly affected when he injured his wrist at the Barcelona Open. That issue forced him to miss the Madrid Open, Italian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.

At Flushing Meadows, he was cleared to compete and moved through five matches without any visible effects from the wrist problem. With the injury now said to be fully behind him, the world No. 3 is preparing for a crowded end to the year.

His next stop is the Laver Cup, which will be staged at the O2 Arena in London from 25 to 27 September. He will again feature for Team Europe, alongside newly-crowned US Open champion Alexander Zverev, Flavio Cobolli, Rafael Jodar, Jakub Mensik and Casper Ruud. It will be his third straight appearance in the event, and Team Europe will be aiming to take back the title after Team World’s 15-9 win in San Francisco last year.

Alcaraz then returns to ATP Tour action in Tokyo, where he will defend his Japan Open title from 30 September. He follows that with the Shanghai Masters from 7 to 18 October, a tournament where he will not be defending points after missing last year’s event with an ankle injury.

After that, he is scheduled for the exhibition Six Kings Slam in Riyadh from 21 to 24 October, before the Paris Masters from 2 to 8 November and the ATP Finals in Turin from 15 to 22 November. His final event of the season is likely to be the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna, Italy, provided Spain qualify.

Jannik Sinner had to view the outcome from afar as Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton in the US Open final to secure a second Grand Slam title.

Zverev has made the most of injuries to Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner during the season, adding both Roland Garros and the US Open to his resume. That run has left the race at the top of the ATP Tour rankings finely poised, with only 1810 points separating Zverev and Sinner.

The German now has a clear opportunity to challenge for the No. 1 spot before the year is out, while Sinner faces a demanding return to the tour. The Italian is expected back at the China Open, which starts on September 30th, but that comeback arrives after a long absence from competition. He has not played since Wimbledon in July, so regaining rhythm will be part of the challenge.

The pressure on Sinner goes beyond form. Between now and the end of the 2026 season, he is defending 3,550 ranking points. Much of that total comes from a strong run at this stage last year, when he won the China Open, the Vienna Open, the Paris Masters, and the ATP Finals.

That means he will need to reproduce those results to protect his points and hold off Zverev in the closing months of the season. The one event where he will not carry that same burden is the Shanghai Masters, scheduled for October 7th to 18th, because he was defeated in the round of 32 there in 2025 by Tallon Griekspoor after fatigue set in.

There are still unknowns around Sinner’s physical condition, and the calendar offers little room for adjustment. Even so, he has already shown he can beat the best without much match play. He won Wimbledon without a warm-up tournament on grass, defeating Novak Djokovic, Zverev, and Jenson Brooksby along the way.

Zverev, by contrast, enters the run-in with only 1,040 points to defend. He did not win a title during this stretch in 2025, giving him a strong opening to collect points and keep pressing for the top of the ATP Tour.

Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys have highlighted just how much Jannik Sinner’s serve has evolved, with both WTA players saying the improvement is so dramatic that it “doesn’t make sense.” Keys also pointed to a surprising source behind the world No 1’s progress: John Isner.

Sinner has been the defining player of the 2026 season, putting together a 44-3 record while collecting five Masters 1000 titles. He has also reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and successfully defended his Wimbledon title, and his form has left him 1410 points clear of world No 2 Alexander Zverev in the ATP Live Race. That position has already assured him of a place at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.

His lone major setback came at the French Open, where he was upset in the second round by Juan Manuel Cerundolo in difficult conditions. Even so, the overall progress in his game has been easy to track, especially on serve.

The numbers underline that change. Over the past 52 weeks on the ATP Tour, Sinner’s service rating is 302.4, behind only Reilly Opelka and ahead of players such as Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz. He also leads the tour in service games won at 92.9 percent and first-serve points won at 80.9 percent.

Speaking on their “The Player’s Box” podcast, Pegula said: “His serve is so good, one of the best, most improved shots,” before adding: “They should give awards to Sinner’s serve. His serve is a joke. His wide serve on the ad side is insane.

“And every time I watch him, I’m like, ‘Ooh, like I know that’s his favourite serve and it’s like kind of low percentage.’ Like you always think, ‘Oh, there’s no way he’s going for it again.’ Just hits an ace every time.

“I don’t understand. Like how did your serve get so much better?”

Keys explained that Darren Cahill had urged Sinner to study Isner’s motion and copy elements of it. She said: “I thought it was pretty crazy because I think I heard Darren talking about it when he first started with Jannik and one of the big things was like we need to improve your serve,” added the American.

“That’s your thing. Basically, pick someone to watch and then just try to copy their serve. And he watched John Isner and was just like, ‘Okay, got it.’

“And then it’s crazy that when you’re at the top of the game or you’re one of the three at the top of the game to keep improving and being willing to change things when you’re holding 87 consecutive times against people [Alexander Zverev] and someone comes to you like, ‘Yeah, we should make a tweak.’

“The fact that he’s like, ‘Yeah, okay. No problem.’”

Isner later reacted on Instagram with a joke of his own: “Serving like me with an actual baseline game is a decent combo.”