For years the tag followed Alexander Zverev like a shadow: the finest player yet to win a major. He led the 2020 US Open final by two sets and let it slip, then lost the 2024 Roland Garros final to Carlos Alcaraz over four and a half hours on the same Paris clay. The German kept knocking, and in 2026 the door finally gave. He won Roland Garros for his 2, Germany's first men's major since Boris Becker three decades earlier, and a long argument was over.
The game was always heavy enough for this. At his height Zverev serves down from the clouds and hits through the court from the baseline, a style that carried him to Olympic singles gold at Tokyo 2020, two ATP Finals crowns indoors, and a career-high of world No. 2 in 2022. His 27 career titles map a long feud with the sport's best, among them Daniil Medvedev, and the Paris breakthrough turned a nearly man into a champion. Five weeks later he reached his first Wimbledon final too, pushing Jannik Sinner to two tiebreaks before losing in four sets.
Thirty-three. That is how many places Nikoloz Basilashvili climbed in the new ATP rankings, from No. 128 to No. 95, a 34-year-old who began the week in qualifying and ends it back inside the top 100. Tallon Griekspoor and Jan Lennard Struff both moved into the top 50 on the same indoor swing.
Ranking taleThirteen. That is where Alejandro Davidovich Fokina now stands in the ATP rankings, up 13 places from 26, a career high one place past his old best of 14 and an entry into the top 20.
Ranking tale