The Shortest Reigns in Tennis: Jannik Sinner joins Federer, McEnroe and Lendl in the rare one-week No. 1 club

The dispute for the year-end World No. 1 spot was closed after perfect campaigns by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner in the ATP Finals Round Robin. Earlier this month, the Italian surprisingly recovered the World No. 1 spot momentarily, but the joy only lasted one week, as Sinner dropped back to second place after the points from the 2024 ATP Finals were discounted.

With this, the Italian became the 8th player to be World No. 1 for only one week and the first in 7 years. The last player who only managed to hold the top spot for one week was Roger Federer back in 2018, when he maintained a tight dispute with Rafael Nadal for the top ranking.

The Swiss Maestro occupied the No. 1 position for one week between May 14 and 20, and repeated the feat a month later between June 18 and June 24—both times in the weeks preceding Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

The precedent only includes Federer and Sinner in this century, but it happened several times in previous decades, featuring some of the most memorable rivalries in tennis history, including John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl.

The first player to reach the top of the ranking for just one week was the Swede Bjorn Borg back in 1977, when he became the 4th player of the Open Era to reach the top spot, displacing Jimmy Connors. It took almost two years for Borg to return to the top of the ranking for another handful of weeks. The 11-time major champion ended his career with a total of 109 weeks at the top of the ranking, distributed between 1977 and 1981.

In the midst of Borg's journeys to be No. 1, a strong rivalry was built with John McEnroe. The American and Borg alternated the No. 1 spot between 1979 and 1982, and McEnroe ascended to No. 1 for just one week in 1980. This would be something that would repeat in Johnny Mac's career, who held this particular record on four occasions (1980, 1982, and twice in 1983), being the player who most often held the top spot for only one week.

One of those who displaced him was his compatriot Jimmy Connors, another player in the tight race for No. 1 in the early 80s. After one week of McEnroe at No. 1 in November 1982, Connors replaced him for one week—before McEnroe returned to the top again. A few months later the same happened: Connors ascended to No. 1 on January 31, 1983, until February 6, and then McEnroe replaced him for just one week between February 7 and 13.

Between 1977 and 1983, the clear dominators of the Tour had been Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, and John McEnroe, who alternated the top of the ranking and won most of the Grand Slam tournaments. Between November 1982 and February 1983 were peak months, where in a total of 25 weeks there were up to 7 changes of World No. 1 in the ATP Ranking. Things would change with the arrival of the Czech Ivan Lendl to the top of the ranking for the first time—after finishing as runner-up in the Australian Open 1983. The Czech came from two Grand Slam finals and a total of 14 titles in the last year leading up to his ascent to lead the men's ranking.

With Lendl joining the Connors-McEnroe dispute for the World No. 1, 6 years passed in which only these three players alternated the top of the ranking, including seven occasions in which the Czech ascended to No. 1, two of them for just one week (June 1984 and August 1985). The variations at the top of the ranking came to an end when Lendl was finally able to secure the top spot in September 1985, beginning a 3-year dominance as the ranking leader (157 consecutive weeks).

The 90s brought possibilities for several new names to ascend to the top of the ranking, even some for just a few weeks. The most emblematic case is that of the Austrian Thomas Muster, who was World No. 1 for just one week in February 1996, with a great boost of points mainly obtained from his 11 titles on clay courts during the previous 52 weeks, including the French Open. The Austrian was No. 1 for one week and was replaced by Pete Sampras (for three weeks). Muster had the opportunity to return to No. 1 in March for another 5 weeks—accumulating a total of 6 weeks in his career as ranking leader.

Later in the 90s came the shortest stay of a tennis player at the top of the ranking: the Australian Patrick Rafter, who in 1999—a year that had up to 5 different players occupying the No. 1 spot—managed to ascend to No. 1 for the first time in July, shortly after falling in the Wimbledon semi-finals to Agassi. Rafter—2-time US Open champion (1997, 1998)—remains the only tennis player in history who only occupied the No. 1 spot for one single week, making it the shortest tenure as ATP ranking leader to date.