After capturing back-to-back grand slam titles and a silver medal at the Paris Olympics, world No.3 Carlos Alcaraz said one of his key goals for the rest of the season is to finish as the top-ranked player in the world.

The 21-year-old French Open and Wimbledon champion, who lost a thrilling Olympic final to Novak Djokovic, returns to action at this week's Cincinnati Open, where he can gain ground on the Serb and Italian Jannik Sinner.

Alcaraz is 450 points behind world No.1 Sinner in the ATP live race to the season finale in Turin, the separate year-to-date standings that serve as a measuring stick for the year-end No.1 battle.

"Obviously being No.1 is a goal every time that I'm behind and the race is an important ranking for me. At the end of the year if you end the race No.1, in the rankings it's quite similar, so you're going to end as No.1," Alcaraz said.

"So I'm really focused on that. I'm focused on going to every tournament, thinking about playing great tennis, doing a good result just to get better in the race. This year, ending the year as No.1 is one of my main goal right now."

Last year's Cincinnati runner-up, Alcaraz, will begin his campaign against Gael Monfils or Alexei Popyrin as he returns to hardcourt tennis for the first time since reaching the Miami quarter-finals in March.

The Cincinnati Open is an important tune-up event for the August 26-September 8 US Open.

Novak Djokovic withdrew from Cincinnati after his Olympic Games triumph.