Alexander Zverev has reached another significant milestone in his outstanding 2026 season by securing the No. 1 spot in the annual ATP rankings on Monday.
The current French Open and US Open champion will be the first German to achieve this position, and also the oldest person to accomplish it for the first time. By the end of the year, according to the ATP ranking date (November 23, 2026), he will be 29 years and 217 days old, which is three days more than Andre Agassi in 1999 (29 years and 214 days).
This became possible after Carlos Alcaraz from Spain suffered an unexpected defeat in the Round of 32 of the current Shanghai Masters tournament against Ziso Bergs from Belgium with a score of 5-7, 6-7 (4). Zverev was already considered a favorite to finish the year as number one, and he had two scenarios to achieve this goal.
The first scenario involved Zverev reaching the semi-finals in Shanghai, and the second was Alcaraz and Ben Shelton losing at any point in the tournament. Before Alcaraz's match, Ben Shelton lost to Arthur Garretson from France in his Round of 32 match on Sunday.
This season, Zverev is demonstrating brilliant form. He completed a long-awaited Grand Slam victory at Roland Garros and previously won the US Open. Furthermore, he reached at least the semi-finals in the first four ATP Masters 1000 tournaments of the season in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, and Madrid (where he was a finalist). In all these cases, he lost to Jannik Sinner.