Alexander Zverev has had an outstanding year, perhaps the best of his career. On Sunday he won the final of the Masters 1000 tournament in Paris against Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6:2, 6:2 and celebrated his 66th win of the season. He has never had more in his career and this year he is at the top of all tennis professionals.
The praise from the competition was correspondingly high. Stefanos Tsitsipas said after his defeat in the quarterfinals against Zverev that the German was the player who had improved the most this year.
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He will go into the season finale of the best eight professionals in Turin on November 17th as second in the world rankings and, more importantly, Zverev is one of the favorites for his third title at the ATP Finals. The victory in Paris-Bercy was his 23rd overall and seventh in one of the Masters tournaments. And it is, so to speak, late satisfaction for the German, because he had already played in Paris twice before this year – and had to accept bitter defeats there.
Despite a 2-1 set lead, he lost the final of the French Open against Carlos Alcaraz. And later at the Olympic Games he was unable to defend his title from Tokyo at the Stade Roland Garros; the defeat against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals was particularly painful because the Olympics have had a special meaning since his gold medal in 2021.
Zverev recently analyzed his season in an ATP interview and did so somewhat self-critically: “I think the first six months were great.” But after that there was “definitely a drop in performance”: “I didn’t perform well, I was didn’t feel good either.”
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Matches Alexander Zverev won the singles this year – a career best
Zverev is known for doubting himself at times and for letting his frustration run wild after bitter defeats. When he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Taylor Fritz at the US Open and thus once again missed a great chance of winning a title at a Grand Slam tournament, he spoke of a “bottomless performance”.
The fact that he was so close to his big goal in 2024 only made it even more bitter for him: “I’m 27 years old, I’ll be 28 next year,” he said, and for that brief moment it seemed as if his confidence was dwindling, to win at least one big title at some point. Every tennis player is measured by this, regardless of how well he otherwise performs on the tour.
More exciting sport at Tagesspiegel Plus:
Tennis legend Björn Borg before the US Open “Zverev has what it takes for a Grand Slam title, for sure” “Life after that is great” Tennis legend Roger Federer on retirement and his successors Alexander Zverev on himself and his tennis “I try to be the best person I can be”
Tennis legend Roger Federer still sees Zverev in his “heyday” and is certain about the Grand Slams: “Sascha will get his chances – and not just one.” The German will do everything he can to achieve this again in 2025 and after this one ends First of all, try to get back to 100% health this season. So that 2025 will be even better and the number of Grand Slam titles may finally no longer be zero.
