Zverev Set to Become World No. 1 After Vienna Quarter-Final Win

Alexander Zverev beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-4 7-5 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, and with that quarter-final berth he will take the men's world number one ranking from Jannik Sinner on Monday, at the earliest moment he could. He is 29, and he is the second German to reach the top of the men's tour, after Boris Becker in 1991.

The ranking caps a season in which he won two Grand Slam titles, the French Open and the US Open, and 64 of his 80 matches. He is also the second oldest man to reach number one for the first time. "It's been a wait but sometimes you have to wait for the best things in life," he said. "I'm super happy, super thrilled - I have no words for this year."

A year ago this looked improbable. Carlos Alcaraz and Sinner had split all eight Grand Slam titles in 2024 and 2025 between them. Going into 2026, Alcaraz led the rankings with 12,050 points and Sinner had 11,500. Zverev, third, had 5,110, a total numerically closer to the player ranked 2,221st than to either leader.

Then the two front-runners missed large parts of the season through injury. Zverev won both of his majors with at least one of them absent, and he never had to face either in those finals. He did not meet a top-10 opponent until he beat Ben Shelton in the US Open final in New York.

He secured the year-end number one ranking on 12 October, when Alcaraz lost in Shanghai. He still could not pass Sinner before 2 November, but the Vienna win ensures he does. He is the first man other than Sinner or Alcaraz to hold the top spot since Novak Djokovic in June 2024. Zverev himself conceded he would "maybe not" be the best player in the world if both rivals were healthy and at the top of their game. Even so, he has beaten what was put in front of him, in a career that had threatened to fall short of the expectations set when he emerged as a teenage prodigy.

His next opponent is British number one Arthur Fery, a rematch of their Wimbledon semi-final. Fery, 24, made an unexpected run to that last four in July and beat Italy's Lorenzo Musetti 6-4 5-7 6-4 in Vienna. Trailing 4-2 in the decider, he broke straight back, then worked through what appeared to be cramp to serve out the win. Musetti, a former world number five, is now ranked 26th after injury, and the result is Fery's biggest win by ranking on the regular ATP Tour.

Elsewhere in Vienna, Cameron Norrie came close to the best win of his season. The 31-year-old, who has dropped to 41st and has lost in the first round of the past three Grand Slams, served for the match at 5-3 40-30 against third seed Daniil Medvedev, the world number five. Medvedev, fresh from winning the Almaty title, picked off a serve-volley attempt and saved the match point, winning 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1). He had been punching the court in anger after falling a break down in the decider. Second seed Alcaraz progressed with a 6-1 7-6 (13-11) win over Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili.

In Basel, Djokovic's hopes of qualifying for the ATP Finals suffered when the 39-year-old, a 24-time major champion, lost in the second round at the Swiss Indoors. Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff won 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-7 (5-7)... the scoreline as reported shows Struff prevailing in a deciding-set tiebreak, his first win over the Serb in nine attempts. Zverev now turns to Fery, with the number one ranking waiting on Monday.