Why Alexander Zverev’s rise to world No 1 rings hollow

This Monday when the ATP tennis rankings were updated there was a new name at the top of the list. Alexander Zverev has capped the best year of his life by ascending to world No 1 for the first time, at the conclusion of a season in which the 29-year-old finally ended his grand slam drought with two titles. It has been an excellent year for one of tennis’ most consistent athletes, who has been a fixture in and around the top 10 since 2017.

On paper, the German’s story is one of triumph over adversity, of the extraordinary difficulty of managing type 1 diabetes with life as an elite athlete and not letting health conditions inhibit one’s sporting dreams. He overcame a debilitating ankle injury sustained in the French Open semi-finals in 2022 which left him needing to be helped off court in a wheelchair.

Then there are the infamous slam finals, the total and utter implosions from two sets to love up and two sets to one up against Dominic Thiem and Carlos Alcaraz respectively at the US Open 2020 and Roland-Garros 2024. He overcame that psychological turmoil too, finally breaking his duck at the French Open this year.

But Zverev’s ascent to the top of the sport in many ways feels hard to celebrate. The feelgood story summarised above, of resilience and discipline, is all true. Yet, if true, other stories about his history and character may make it ring hollow to many observers uncomfortable with his continued presence in the sport at all.

He has been accused by two former partners of domestic abuse, allegations which Zverev adamantly denies. Olga Sharypova made allegations of physical and emotional abuse against him in interviews with Racquet magazine in 2020 and Slate in 2021, but did not bring a a court action, insisting she only wanted to share her story and to inspire women in similar situations to come forward.

Zverev settled out of court with another ex-partner, Brenda Patea, in 2024, after he had previously been issued a penalty order – which occurs under German law where the evidence for one side is considered compelling and a trial deemed unnecessary – and fined. The court was clear in its statement after the 2024 settlement: “The decision is not a verdict and it is not a decision about guilt or innocence.”

Zverev has since inaccurately claimed it proved his innocence. He has not been convicted. There has been no verdict at all, leaving him in a limbo state, a grey space with no legally definitive outcome but where the harrowing details of the accusations cannot be forgotten by those who have read them. He is obviously not the first sportsman to be in this position and nor will he be the last. That does not detract from the severity of what he has been accused of and the inability of many tennis viewers to, in good conscience, support him.

If we are to put aside that enormous ethical and moral quandary, there are other elements to Zverev’s behaviour which rankle, including a disqualification at the Mexico Open in 2022 after he violently and repeatedly smashed his racquet into the umpire’s chair and swore at the official.

There are incidents of gamesmanship on court which have put him at odds with fellow players, the two-and-a-half hours’ worth of ball-bouncing before each second serve – according to Sky Sports – at this US Open and its effect of grinding his opponents down. It isn’t technically against the rules as there are no rules at all governing the time taken before second serves – but in the ‘gentlemen’s game’, ruled as much as it is by unspoken conventions of etiquette, it feels distinctly out of order.

That obviously doesn’t make a player ineligible for the top ranking in the sport; it is not decided on vibes, nor should it be. But the tennis itself which has brought him there was hardly inspiring or befitting the ranking either. Zverev’s record against top-10 players this year stands at three wins and nine losses as of the time of writing; his only victory in two years and 14 matches against the trio of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner came when the Serb retired in their Australian Open semi-final in January 2025.

Most significantly, his victory has come in a year when Alcaraz and Sinner, the standard-bearers of the men’s tour, have both missed huge chunks with injury – and are still on course to remain in the top three despite that, such is their superiority when fit.

When Andy Murray was year-end world No 1 in 2016, he had reached the most finals and won the most titles of anyone on tour; this year Sinner holds both those accolades, not Zverev, despite only playing for six months. Djokovic’s astonishing 2015 season saw him win 11 tournaments including three majors, the ATP Finals, and six Masters titles. Zverev’s tally, with one Masters tournament still to play in 2026, stands at two titles and one additional Masters final – when he lost to Sinner.

He has taken his chances at the biggest tournaments and largely been consistent across the rest, but he beat only two top-10 players in his entire grand slam campaign – an ailing Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon and first-time finalist Ben Shelton in the New York showpiece.

His first major title came against another first-time finalist in Flavio Cobolli at Roland-Garros, a match which it is not uncharitable to call one of the worst grand slam finals of all time, with both players seemingly determined to lose it due to nerves until Cobolli ran out of steam entirely and Zverev could relax. The fact that he eventually got over the line after repeated, crushing disappointments is remarkable – but it was essentially handed to him.

So the glory of becoming world No 1 feels in many ways a hollow triumph. That will not matter to Zverev or his team, of course. As the adage goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you. But to many observers this whole year, and that world No 1 ranking, will be accompanied by a small but powerful asterisk.