Zverev: World No. 1-elect, decided in Shanghai, still waiting to feel it
Alexander Zverev (No. 1) takes on Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (No. 25) in the Shanghai semifinals with the year-end No. 1 ranking already his, and a win would make him world No. 1 on November 2. Still No. 2 for now, “funny enough,” the German has put the emotion on hold, played through a painful right ankle and admitted he only noticed his ball-bouncing habit once the US Open was over.
Alexander Zverev, Shanghai 2026 | © AP Photo/Andy Wong
Alexander Zverev faces Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, seed No. 25, in the semifinals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Saturday with the year-end No. 1 ranking already secured and a date for his reign within reach.
A win would make the German top seed the 30th world No. 1 in ATP Rankings history on November 2, whatever happens in the final and in Vienna, and even if he does not play another match this season. Jannik Sinner, out for the rest of the season, is on 10,950 points and will lose 500 after Vienna. A win on Saturday would take Zverev to 10,320. He leads Davidovich Fokina 6-1 in their head-to-head.
The year-end No. 1 was decided this week, with Sinner sidelined. It is a certainty, and an odd one: the 29-year-old has the ranking guaranteed without yet holding it, and he was the first to point out the gap. “For now, I’m No. 2 in the world still, funny enough,” he said after his fourth-round win over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik (7-6, 4-6, 7-6)
He has put off the emotion until the ranking actually changes. “I think the emotions come when you actually see the No. 1 next to your name,” he said. “I think that will be, for sure, something special.” Asked whether friends had already sent messages, he laughed: “Yeah, everybody.”
If I’m doing something that my opponents feel like I distract them, I don’t want to do it. I want to win with tennis.
The ranking crowns a season in which Zverev leads the ATP Tour with 62 match wins. He won Roland Garros to become the first German man to take the title in the Open Era, and he won the US Open after spending 23 hours and 11 minutes on court.
That focus on the tournament in front of him is nothing new. At the US Open, it was so complete that he missed what everyone else had noticed: the heavy ball bouncing before his serve, which began in New York and which he only realized had gone too far once the tournament was over. “I was not aware of it because my phone was off, I didn’t see social media and all that,” he said. After his quarterfinal win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur, 6-4, 6-4, the chair umpire reminded him to watch the shot clock. Zverev said he is doing it less than he did in New York and is working on it. “If I’m doing something that my opponents feel like I distract them, I don’t want to do it,” he said. “I want to win with tennis.”
The week has also tested his body. Zverev said he first felt his right ankle during his third-round win over France’s Quentin Halys, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, and that it got worse from the middle of the second set against Bublik. It is the ankle in which he tore three ligaments in the 2022 Roland Garros semifinal against Rafael Nadal, who led 7-6, 6-6 when Zverev stopped. It is still the only match he has ever retired from. “I’ve never retired in a tennis match in my life, except 2022 Roland Garros, where I really couldn’t walk,” he said. “I don’t want to retire with no reason.”
Vienna, Paris, Turin
Against de Minaur, short points kept the pain down. “The longer the match goes, the worse my ankle gets,” he said. “I feel like today I was able to play so quickly that I didn’t have to play long rallies.”
Shanghai has history for him. He reached the final in 2019, losing to Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-1, and comes into Saturday’s semifinal with a 17-7 record at the event.
After Shanghai, Zverev’s next stops are Vienna and the Rolex Paris Masters, ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin from November 15 to 22, for which he has already qualified.
