Zverev lashes out at Jannik Sinner: “I’m not an idiot”

Alexander Zverev won’t be celebrating his rise to the top of the ATP rankings with a title: the German tennis player was defeated in the semifinals in Vienna by Alex De Minaur, and will now take a few days off ahead of the Paris Masters 1000. At a press conference, Sascha spoke again about overtaking the Italian, clearly addressing the balance of power between the two.

“I’d be an idiot to sit here and say I was as good as Jannik Sinner. I wasn’t. I was the second-best player because Carlos Alcaraz was injured and couldn’t play,” Zverev said. “But physical conditioning is a fundamental part of this sport. I train about five or six hours a day and play tennis for an hour.”

Zverev has lost his last 10 matches against Sinner, but in 2026 he’s been much more consistent, and his excellent physical condition has been decisive: “The focus is entirely on athletic conditioning, to keep me in shape and avoid injuries. That way, I feel just as fit in the fifth set as I do in the first.”

The change at the top will become official with the ranking update on Monday, November 2. Sinner will thus bring his third reign as No. 1 to a close, a run that began on April 13, when he overtook Alcaraz. For Zverev, it will be his first time at the top—a milestone that no German tennis player has achieved in more than thirty-five years, since Boris Becker in 1991.

The provisional No. 1 had already explained that he did not want to celebrate before the end of the season: “I’ll wait until the end of the week and maybe do something small, because I’ll be back on the court in Paris on Tuesday or Wednesday. Our season continues; it’s not over yet. When the year ends, I’ll definitely take a break. I’ll go to the Maldives, as always.” Before then, he still has the Paris Masters 1000, the ATP Finals, and the Davis Cup ahead of him.