ROME (AP) — It’s not just Grand Slam titles that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have taken turns collecting this year.
The top two tennis players are also trading the No. 1 ranking back and forth.
Sinner officially returned to the top spot in the ATP rankings on Monday following his Paris Masters victory — replacing Alcaraz, who had held the honor for nearly two months.
But due to the rankings’ math and rules, Alcaraz will return to No. 1 next Monday.
The Italian and the Spaniard are separated by so few points now — Sinner leads with 11,500 points to Alcaraz’s 11,250 — that it will come down to their performances at the upcoming ATP Finals in Turin to determine who ends the year at No. 1.
While neither Sinner nor Alcaraz are playing this week — except for when the ATP Finals start on Sunday — the reason the rankings will change again next Monday is because that’s the day when the points from each player’s performance at last year’s finals drops off.
Sinner next week will lose the 1,500 points he earned from winning the finals last year, while Alcaraz will lose only the 200 points that he earned after failing to advance from the group stage.
So next Monday, the rankings will read: Alcaraz 11,050 and Sinner 10,000.
And there’s zero possibility for any other player to move into the top two spots anytime soon since No. 3 Alexander Zverev (5,560 points), No. 4 Taylor Fritz (4,735) and No. 5 Novak Djokovic (4,580) trail far behind.
Sinner and Alcaraz have amassed their huge points totals by winning — among other tournaments — all four of this year’s majors.
Sinner won the Australian Open. Then Alcaraz beat Sinner in an epic French Open final. Sinner got some revenge by beating Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final. And then Alcaraz beat Sinner again for the U.S. Open trophy.
Making matters more complicated is that Alcaraz will be seeded No. 1 for the finals — even though he won’t be ranked No. 1 entering that tournament.
That’s because the finals uses another rankings system — the “Race to Turin” that takes into account only points accumulated in the calendar year.
Alcaraz leads Sinner by more than 1,000 points in the Race rankings.
Sinner lost ground in both systems during a three-month doping suspension near the start of the year.
Sinner needs to win the ATP Finals and hope Alcaraz doesn’t reach the final to secure the year-end No. 1 for a second consecutive year.
Alcaraz needs to win three matches at the finals to finish 2025 atop the rankings for the second time in his career. Alcaraz became the youngest player to finish a year at No. 1 when he achieved the feat as a 19-year-old in 2022.
As for the WTA rankings, Aryna Sabalenka has already secured the year-ending No. 1 spot.
Sinner enters Turin on a 10-match winning streak after titles in Vienna and Paris, will be playing on his favorite surface — an indoor hard court — and can expect loud support from his home fans at the finals.
Alcaraz goes to Italy coming off a loss to Cameron Norrie in his Paris opener and has often struggled when playing indoors.
The other players to qualify for the finals — which features the top eight of the Race — so far are: Zverev, Djokovic, Ben Shelton, Fritz and Alex de Minaur.
Paris finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime and Lorenzo Musetti are still battling for the final spot, with Musetti needing to win a tournament in Athens this week to move ahead of the Canadian and qualify for the elite event in his home country.
It’s also unclear, though, if Djokovic plans to play the finals at a point in his career where he has said he’s focusing almost exclusively on the majors.
Djokovic, who withdrew from the finals last year, is playing in Athens this week.
If Djokovic withdraws, both Auger-Aliassime and Musetti would qualify for the finals.
The draw for the finals is slated for Thursday — when it could still be uncertain who the last qualifier is.
Andrew Dampf is at https://x.com/AndrewDampf
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Italy's Jannik Sinner holds the trophy after winning the final match of the Paris Masters tennis tournament against Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
FILE - Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, plays a shot against United States' Taylor Fritz during the men's final match at the Tokyo ATP 500 tennis tournament at Ariake Coliseum, in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, file)
Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates after winning the final match of the Paris Masters tennis tournament against Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Republicans have gathered in Dallas for the closing day of the party’s midterm convention that aims to highlight President Donald Trump ’s influence and boost enthusiasm among GOP voters ahead of November’s midterm election. Speakers at the two-day event have derided Democratic candidates as extremists and offered defenses of Trump’s war in Iran.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance were among those to address the crowd.
Trump pledged Wednesday during the convention to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further fan inflation concerns and exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit.
Missouri’s Republican secretary of state has ordered local election authorities to use its 2022 congressional map instead of a congressional map backed by Trump after the Supreme Court struck it down earlier today. The decision means Missouri will run the general election with a different congressional map than was used in the primary.
An appeals court on Thursday upheld a block on Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting.
Here's the latest:
Trump concluded with a final plea: “Go out and vote.”
He turned the microphone over to opera performer Christopher Macchio, who belted out a soaring rendition of “America the Beautiful” as balloons fell.
Trump lingered and swayed to the music.
The president went on an extended riff about the size of his crowd in the American Airlines Center, the roughly 20,000-seat venue hosting the convention.
“Look at it,” Trump said. “The highest rafter, no empty seats.”
“Look at the upper ring. Look, everything is taken,” he continued. Even the “rich people boxes” were filled, he said.
However, nearly the entire upper deck was empty.
The media, he complained, will report that the room had empty seats.
Finally, after nearly three minutes of boasting, he acknowledged the elephant missing from the room.
“I gotta do a little bit better in the back,” he said.
“I’m not happy with it. That’s not good. I shouldn’t have looked up there,” he added.
Trump closed out the Republican convention by claiming the stock market had hit 80 highs, the job market is strong and he’s delivering on all of his promises to voters.
The happy talk in Dallas is a contrast to the bleak mood on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 is on a four-day losing streak, instead of setting new records. U.S. oil futures topped $100 a barrel as worries about the Iran war persist. And the inflation and high interest rates that Trump pledged to fix are causing new financial jitters.
The interest rate on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes on Thursday rose above 4.9%, meaning that the expense for mortgages, auto loans and other forms of debt has increased in ways that could slow growth.
The president said he didn’t plan to speak much Thursday at the Republican convention after his keynote address on Wednesday.
But he went on to riff anyway.
“We were a laughingstock all over the world,” Trump said, referring to his predecessor. “But we took that dark age of America and turned it into the golden age of America.”
Lee Greenwood was on stage to sing “God Bless the USA” as Vance left the stage and Trump walked out.
Vance and Trump shook hands as the vice president walked off.
The vice president said that Democrats have evolved into a group that stands against America, saying that the country should belong “to those that love it, not those that hate it.”
Vance touched a series of culturally loaded issues on race and immigration.
He took offense at the suggestion by Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, that Vance’s own grandfather would object to his marriage to a woman of Indian descent.
Vance said that Democrats now find sympathy with the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks in 2001 but not people like his grandfather.
“The Democrats are the party of hatred,” Vance said. “They’re the party that despises America and the people who built it.”
Vance implored undecided voters to recognize the Trump administration’s record and not hand control of Congress to Democrats.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there. Look, I’m not asking anybody to agree with me on every single issue. I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy,” Vance said at the GOP midterm convention. “What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months.”
Without explicitly mentioning the Iran war, the vice president invoked conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who “hated war,” according to Vance.
“That was his view. Now, of course, there are people who love what we’ve done and people who don’t. I’m not here to litigate the disagreements between Charlie and some of the people that he disagreed with,” he said.
Vance claimed that “we actually took on big pharma and lowered drug costs for all of our citizens.”
Federal data shows that U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.9% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963. The White House said these plunging prices resulted from Trump’s “most favored nation” drug deal with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website.
But drug pricing experts say the real picture is more complicated, noting that other factors, including a law from former President Joe Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures.
Vance took a swipe at James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate.
He praised Trump for coining a nickname: Talafreako.
For his part, Talarico and his supporters have embraced that nickname, printing it on shirts and adopting it as a badge of honor.
Like many speakers across the two-day convention, Vance pointed to comments Talarico has made about religion and transgender Americans, including saying God is nonbinary.
“I got to say, a guy that age who is so obsessed and focused on transgender children, I don’t know about you, but I never want to see that guy’s web browser history,” Vance said.
Vance addressed speculation about his presidential ambitions.
“JD 48!” a woman yelled loudly from the stands, a reference to the next president, who will be the 48th. That prompted chants of “JD!” and “48!”
Vance responded by saying his focus for now is the midterms.
“We gotta take care of business this November and then we’ll worry about what comes next,” he said.
Vance invoked his family as he credited the president with building a bright future, while attacking the “far left” for working against their “birthright.”
Vance, the father of four including a six-week-old son, defended the nuclear family, which he said was being attacked by Democrats. He said he wants the same thing for American families as he does for his own.
“I want them to keep what they’ve earned when they work hard. And that is the birthright that I’m talking about. That is the country that Donald J. Trump is fighting every single day to defend and to build upon,” he said.
Vance opened his speech with an apparent defense of administration efforts to reduce immigration in the U.S.
Vance said voters were tired by factory closures, drug overdoses and crime and then pivoted to immigration.
“And we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said.
The statement revealed the delicate politics at play on immigration. Vance falsely claimed during the 2024 election that Haitian immigrants in his home state of Ohio were abducting and eating pets, a falsehood that Trump repeated.
“History will record that your father was a great man,” Vance said.
He recalled being nervous to give his speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention less than two years after being elected to his first role in politics as an Ohio senator.
“As I addressed the country on the biggest stage of my life in the front row, right about there,” he said, pointing in front of him, “my dear friend Charlie Kirk was smiling and cheering me and reminding me that I had a good friend right here in the convention hall.”
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, who took over as the leader of the Turning Point organization he founded, “has carried on his mission with more courage and resolve than most of us will ever be asked to show,” Vance said.
Vance opened his speech with an apparent defense of administration efforts to reduce immigration in the U.S.
Vance said voters were tired by factory closures, drug overdoses and crime and then pivoted to immigration.
“And we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” Vance said.
The statement revealed the delicate politics at play on immigration. Vance falsely claimed during the 2024 election that Haitian immigrants in his home state of Ohio were abducting and eating pets, a falsehood that Trump repeated.
The vice president walked onto the stage after a secret riser behind the podium was revealed with a curtain raise, showing people waving American flags.
The crowd in the arena rose to their feet to welcome Vance as a hype video about him played on screens.
While Vance was met with cheers, the reception did not seem quite as loud as the welcome Kennedy and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt got as they took the stage.
The president’s son said followers of the “Make America Great Again” movement will keep Kirk’s fight for conservatism alive.
Trump Jr. said that Kirk had inspired a movement to stand up to leftists.
“We will not back down,” Trump Jr. said. “We will not fold. We will honor Charlie by carrying his torch to save this nation that we all love so dearly.”
Trump Jr. said that Democrats wanted to “shove down our throats” a “hellscape.”
As Republicans gather in Dallas, the president is also deploying his cash in key midterm races.
No Going Back PAC Inc., which a person with knowledge of the situation said is connected to Trump’s MAGA Inc., has been buying up airtime during the convention. So far it has reserved more than $68 million in advertising.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the funding arrangement.
— By Thomas Beaumont
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lamented what he cast as the transformation of the Democratic Party of his father and uncle at the midterm GOP convention.
The son of a former U.S. attorney general and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, the secretary said the “irony of my presence here is inescapable.”
He enumerated his view that the party had abandoned working Americans for elites and said he found a new home in the Republican Party, eliciting loud cheers and applause.
“The Democratic Party, in short, lost its way,” he said.
A video marking the Sept. 11 attacks included images from the devastation and clips of then-President George W. Bush’s visit to ground zero and triumphant first pitch in the 2001 World Series.
It also included images of then-New York real estate figure Donald Trump striding into Manhattan and talking to media about employees for his business who were working at the time of the attack.
The video later turned to images of some Democratic figures who have been critical of U.S. foreign policy and offered more callous statements of the calamity.
The segment wrapped with images of Trump as president, suggesting he had shielded the U.S. from further similar attacks, as presidents since Bush have also done.
In the end, quiet, respectful applause lightly fluttered across the arena.
Christopher Macchio’s soaring tenor spiraled through the American Airlines Center, the strains of “Ave Maria” in an almost silent convention center.
It was the most solemn and poignant moment of the convention, a tribute to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
As Macchio’s voice filled the arena, the floor was darkened, though two beams of light stretched upward, reminiscent of the Twin Towers. Convention goers illuminated their mobile phone flashlights, giving the fitting illusion of candlelight.
The basketball arena’s screens fluttered with images of passenger aircraft striking the World Trade Center towers in New York, footage of frantic Manhattanites and debris-covered police, fire and rescue workers.
A narrator intoned “2,977 innocent people lost their lives,” as familiar videos transitioned to home videos of families.
“Always remember who they are,” the narrator said solemnly. “Say their names. Honor their sacrifice. Defend Freedom. Never forget September 11.”
Lawler, facing reelection in a battleground district this year, appealed to “common sense Democrats and independents” from the GOP midterm convention stage.
It was a different tone compared with the near constant attacks on Democrats.
“While I’m honored to be in this arena with so many fellow Republicans tonight, my message is really aimed at common sense Democrats and independents across the country tuning in and still undecided about their vote in November,” he said.
In an emotional presentation, Lawler appeared on stage with the family of Sheridan Gorman, who was fatally shot this year in Chicago. Officials have charged a man they say was illegally in the country with her slaying.
Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the underground website used for selling drugs, thanked Trump for pardoning him last year after being sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
“You gave me my life back, sir,” Ulbricht said while choking back tears.
Some in the crowd at the Republican midterm convention shouted that his plight was similar to that of those imprisoned for participating in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. He said Trump was also a “target of weaponized government” after the indictments and investigations after his first term.
Ulbricht said there are hundreds of “decent Americans” who Trump freed from prison.
“I’ll be a block,” Trump said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.” “I’ll end up being a blocker.”
The president suggested he still might be able to strike deals with Congress.
He also defended his promise to give $5,000 payments to each American if Republicans preserve their congressional majorities and said he might not need congressional approval.
He also said that faster economic growth would help to pay down the $40 trillion national debt over time. Growth so far is running lower under Trump than his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
GOP nominee Mike Rogers said his opponent is being funded by “terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood,” but offered no proof to back up his claim.
Rogers sought to portray Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee and an epidemiologist, as a terrorist sympathizer because of his relationship with the podcaster Hasan Piker, a liberal online commentator and critic of Israel.
“They treat our country like it’s the villain,” Rogers said of his opponent and Piker.
El-Sayed distanced himself from Piker last month.
The normally festive and rowdy crowd inside the American Airlines Center quickly hushed. On the screen was a face known to many of the thousands in the basketball arena, as his voice, just as familiar, came back to life for just a few minutes.
During a five-minute homage to Kirk, the conservative organizer and former President of Turning Point USA shot to death a year ago, the Republican midterm convention sat uncharacteristically quiet.
Video of Kirk speaking and working with young adults, for which he became known as a speaker on college campuses, rolled on the huge screen, while his voice echoed through the silence.
At the short program’s end, a polite round of applause rippled through the seats.
Lucas Miles, a pastor and a Turning Point vice president, kicked off a tribute to Charlie Kirk on the one year anniversary of his death.
“They could take the man,” Miles said. “They could not take the mission.”
He ticked off a list of Turning Point’s accomplishments: thousands of chapters, more than a billion social media views.
“Turning Point is not dead,” Miles said. “The organization Charlie founded is still growing.”
Mike Johnson suggested that differences with Democrats have become irreconcilable, saying “next year the communists will be in Congress.”
“It now falls to us to fight to preserve the country that we love,” Johnson said. “It’s being attacked from within.”
The Trump presidency has been defined by a broader radicalization among Republicans and Democrats alike.
Democrats portray Trump as a corrupt actor who has violated the norms and constitutional standards governing the country, whereas Johnson and others at the GOP midterm convention have said that Democrats are now beholden to political radicals that should be rejected.
The House speaker claimed he has led “the most productive Congress in 80 years.”
Since the start of 2025, Congress has passed 105 laws, down from 274 laws passed in the prior Congress during the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term when Republicans held a majority in the House, according to Govtrack.us.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Republican convention, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Republican convention Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Vice President JD Vance points to President Donald Trump at the Republican convention Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump leaves the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump attends the RNC Midterm Convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. (Eric Lee/Pool photo via AP)
President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican convention, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
