Alexander Zverev has done something unusual for a man who has just reached the top of his sport: he has made the case against himself. Hours after beating Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 7-5 in Vienna to lock in the world No. 1 ranking from 2 November, he told reporters that Jannik Sinner was the better player for much of 2026, and that he would be foolish to claim otherwise.
“He was beating me all the time, and I would be an idiot to sit here and say that I was equally as good as Jannik,” Zverev said in his press conference, as reported by Tennis Majors. “I wasn’t. I was the second-best player, because Carlos was injured and he was not able to compete.”
He went further. “In terms of pure tennis, when he’s fit, he’s the best tennis player in the world. No question.”
Zverev’s defence: fitness is part of the job
The admission came with a counter-argument attached, and it is the same one his most prominent supporter has been making for a week. “I think fitness, being healthy and being fit is an absolute massive part of sport,” Zverev said, describing off-seasons in which he trains for five or six hours a day and plays perhaps an hour of tennis. “My main focus shifts towards physical training, being healthy, being able to play a fifth set the same way you play a first set.”
Patrick Mouratoglou put it more bluntly in a video on his social channels on 23 October. “Zverev might not be the best player, but he’s the number one in the world, and he fully deserves it,” he said, in remarks reported by Tennis Majors. “The first way I read the situation is that your ranking is your value. If others are injured, bad luck for them.”
Mouratoglou called staying healthy “a real skill” and was asked directly whether Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are better than Zverev. “Yes, but they’re not number one. He’s number one.”
Jessica Pegula, speaking on the Players Box podcast she co-hosts, reached the same verdict with less patience for the debate. “He won two Slams, and the other guys are hurt. What are you going to do? Some people are like, ‘He is not the true No. 1’. Who cares?” she said, as quoted by Express Sport.
The case the sceptics make
The sceptics’ argument rests on the head-to-heads. Zverev has not beaten Sinner, Alcaraz or Novak Djokovic in 2026. Sinner went 5-0 against him this year, and Alcaraz recovered from 3-5 down in the final set of their Australian Open semi-final to win the last four games. An Express Sport reader poll found 74 per cent of voters did not think Zverev was the best player in the world.
What is striking is that Zverev does not dispute any of that. He has simply chosen a different question to answer. The ranking does not ask who would win a match between fit players; it asks who produced the best results across a season. On that measure he won Roland-Garros and the US Open, and he leads the tour in match wins.
Our view: the honesty is the strongest argument he has
Rankings have always rewarded availability. Djokovic’s long reign was built partly on the fact that he was rarely injured, a point Mouratoglou made himself. Zverev’s two Slam titles came in draws without Sinner or Alcaraz, but he still had to win seven matches at each, and for years he was the player who could not close out the big occasions. That changed this season.
By conceding Sinner’s superiority so plainly, Zverev has taken the sting out of the “lucky No. 1” line. He is not claiming to be something he is not. He is claiming the ranking for what it measures, and he has set himself the obvious test. “I’m looking forward to Jannik and Carlos being healthy again and hopefully competing with them for many more years,” he said. “Hopefully I can continue to make it interesting with those two guys.”
Sinner is out for the rest of the season, so the head-to-head with him cannot change before 2027. Until Zverev beats one of the two players he calls better, the debate will not go away. But nobody can say he is pretending it does not exist.
For how the year-end ranking is decided, see our ATP Year-End No. 1 explainer, and for an earlier defence of Zverev’s season, read Boris Becker on why nothing was given to him for free.
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