Before this year, Alexander Zverev had zero Grand Slam titles on his resume, but by the end of this Grand Slam season, he ended up adding two. However, many people are diminishing his achievement, crediting it to a weak draw instead of giving him his due. As a result, former American World No. 1, Andy Roddick, had a message for everyone on the latest episode of his podcast.

“I know all the losers are gonna try to like, spit in his Cheerios and say like, you didn’t beat them,” Roddick said on the Served Podcast. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve changed the entire narrative of your career. You have two slams. You will be a Hall of Famer. I’m guessing he will touch number one.” 

Both the titles in Paris and New York came without defeating Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner and just included two top-10 victories, Flavio Cobolli and Ben Shelton. Hence, some critics and trolls are suggesting that he got lucky. 

“He might even finish the year number one. What is he, 1800 points up right now? Yeah, yeah, he’s like 1810. Okay, so that’s a Masters 1000 and ATP Tour Finals ahead,” he added. “You can’t think that like, Jannik and Carlos coming off of injuries, I don’t know that they’re gonna chase the number one ranking by overplaying in the fall, coming off of injuries. I mean, I don’t think so. And I know Zverev is gonna do it. Like he’s gonna chase it. I was, when I was in position, I chased it.”

Even Zverev himself did not dodge the question when it came up in his own press conference. When asked outright if he considers himself the best player in the world at the moment, he didn’t deny it, but said there is a certain qualification. 

“With Jannik Sinner being injured, Carlos Alcaraz coming back from injury after four months, right now, this moment, probably yes,” he said. “Both of them healthy, both of them at the top of their game? Maybe not. But if we say right, right now, with Jannik being injured and Carlos coming back from injury, maybe.”

Zverev’s historic season – enough to silence the trolls

Whatever the caveats, the season Sascha Zverev has had is difficult to argue with. He finishes the US Open with a 25-2 record in Grand Slam matches this season, the most of any player on tour, sitting just two wins shy of the Open Era record of 27 shared by Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. 

He also became just the ninth man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals of all four majors in the same season, a run that took him from the Australian Open semis through his maiden title at Roland Garros, a Wimbledon final loss to Sinner, and now the US Open trophy.

Sinner and Alcaraz are in genuine doubt about the amount of matches they will appear in before the season concludes. The Italian has not competed since his Wimbledon title due to a knee injury, and while he is tentatively aiming to return at the Beijing ATP 500 in late September. 

On the other hand, Alcaraz came off his own four-month layoff with wrist injury at this US Open and has stated that he intends to lower his workload moving forward. 

“In the future, I’m going to take some breaks, some long breaks,” he said. “Maybe not four months, but one month, two months, missing some tournaments, because it’s impossible to play them all.” 

While both players dealing with their injuries on their own terms, Zverev making the push for the No. 1 ranking is a genuine possibility.