Alexander Zverev is guaranteed to finish the 2026 season as world number one after Carlos Alcaraz suffered a surprise defeat at the Shanghai Masters. The German will become the 30th man to be ranked number one on the ATP Tour.
Zverev was on course to climb above current world number one Jannik Sinner, who has been ruled out for the rest of the year with a knee injury. Alcaraz still had a mathematical chance of stopping him until he lost 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to Belgium’s Zizou Bergs in the third round on Monday.
“It’s been a fantastic season for me. Knowing that I will finish the year on top of the rankings is just a dream come true,” said Zverev.
A breakthrough year
After losing three major finals, Zverev won the first Grand Slam title of his career at the French Open in June. He followed that with victory at the US Open last month. The 29-year-old has taken advantage of injury problems suffered by Alcaraz and Sinner, the dominant pair on the ATP Tour over the previous two seasons, to become the world’s leading player.
Zverev cannot overtake Sinner until 2 November at the earliest. He will become the first German man to end a year as world number one, and the oldest player to reach the top spot for the first time.
He was sidelined for seven months after a serious ankle injury in the 2022 French Open semi-finals. Since returning, he has been ranked inside the top four continuously since March 2024.
“So much work and effort have been put into achieving this goal, especially after coming back from the ankle injury. I look forward to finishing the season in style,” he added.
How Zverev completed the task
At the start of the year, few believed anyone other than Sinner or Alcaraz would finish as world number one. Going into 2026, Alcaraz led the rankings with 12,050 points, with Sinner close behind on 11,500. The pair, who split all eight Grand Slam titles across 2024 and 2025 between them, opened a huge gap over the rest of the field. Third-ranked Zverev had 5,110 points, which was numerically closer to the 2,221st player in the rankings than to the top two.
Zverev has benefited from Sinner and Alcaraz missing large chunks of the season through injury. He won the French Open and US Open with at least one of the pair absent. Neither major win required him to face Sinner or Alcaraz, and he did not face a top-10 player until he beat Ben Shelton in the New York final.
Zverev has said he would “maybe not” be the world’s best player if both rivals were “healthy and at the top of their game”. Still, as the old adage goes, you can only beat what is in front of you. He has done exactly that, producing the finest season of a career that had threatened to fall short of the lofty expectations placed on him since he emerged as a teenage prodigy.
Alcaraz reflects on defeat
Alcaraz has made encouraging progress since returning from a wrist injury that kept him off tour for almost five months. However, this defeat showed that coming back from such a long absence is not smooth sailing. The seven-time Grand Slam champion played below the level he showed in winning the Japan Open last week, producing a string of uncharacteristic errors.
“Today wasn’t a good match from my side. I didn’t feel good,” said Alcaraz, who also credited 39th-ranked Bergs for serving strongly and taking his chances.
“Right now, all the negative thoughts come to my mind and none of the positives, but I think [later] I will take the good things.”
Bergs, who showed great composure to serve out the biggest win of his career, faces American Tommy Paul in the last 16. Zverev remains in the draw as one of only three top-eight seeds left, alongside Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.