Jannik Sinner ignoring Carlos Alcaraz battle as coach says 'we won't speak about that'

Jannik Sinner is one win away from overtaking his biggest rival, Carlos Alcaraz, in the rankings and returning to No. 1 in the world. Sinner arrived at the Paris Masters with an outside chance of reclaiming the top spot but his luck changed when Alcaraz suffered a shock early exit.

The Italian has repeatedly insisted that he isn't thinking about surpassing Alcaraz in the race for No. 1, and his coach says the topic is off limits. Sinner doubled down after thrashing an ailing Alexander Zverev 6-0 6-1 in the semi-finals.

If the four-time Major winner can beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in Sunday's final, he'll move ahead of Alcaraz in the rankings and create a 250-point gap at the top. But Sinner downplayed the importance of the No. 1 position after his semi-final victory.

"This is all a consequence of how I'm going to play tomorrow. I'm very focused on trying to play as good as I can. If it happens, good. If not, it's, you know, next time," the 24-year-old said.

"If it happens good, if not, it's next time. It's not changing that much if you become No. 1 in the world for one or two weeks. So in any case, from my side and my point of view, it has been an incredible season."

Even if Sinner returns to the top spot on Monday, the race for the year-end No. 1 will heat up at the ATP Finals in Turin, where he is the defending champion. Alcaraz won just one round-robin match at the season-ending event last year and was eliminated in the group stage, so he has a better chance of gaining extra points.

Sinner isn't the only one who is ignoring the rankings battle as his coach, Darren Cahill, revealed that they weren't talking about it within the team.

Speaking to Sky Sports before the world No. 2 beat Zverev in the semis, Cahill explained: "It's been an interesting year for us, he's the winner of two Grand Slam titles, the Wimbledon champion. So for us, that's incredible effort, what he's been able to achieve so far.

"We have not spoken about it, we will not speak about it. He's too far away from it to even consider it.

"He keeps talking about one day at a time, and honestly, I know it's a cliche, but it's the easiest way for us to keep things simple, especially when he's not feeling his best and he's a little bit tired."

While Sinner has admittedly "not been 100 per cent" in Paris this week, he needed just over an hour to send defending champion Zverev packing in the semi-finals.

Zverev was struggling with an ankle issue and told his team that he was having trouble moving. He called the doctor early in the second set and took anti-inflammatories but lost 6-0 6-1.