Alexander Zverev, the only man to win a Grand Slam in the last two and a half years, who is not Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz. The newly crowned world No. 2 in the absence of Alcaraz has surely put his name back in the mix to challenge the ‘big two’. Former German Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann made a bold statement for his compatriot,  claiming that he has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with Sinner and Alcaraz. 

“Personally, I never felt he was far behind them,” Kohlmann said in an interview with Ran Joyn. “However, I think Sinner and Alcaraz had a slight edge in recent years, mainly because they won the really big games and often their head-to-head matches. I feel he has now caught up. I even think that in the last two months, he has sometimes been slightly better.”

Zverev won his maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this year, then backed it up with a run to the Wimbledon final, taking the opening set off defending champion Sinner before the Italian closed out the next three. Outside of a quieter week in Rome, Zverev has made it at least to the semi-finals of all of his Grand Slams and Masters 1000 in 2026. These results have carried him to the world No.2 spot in the absence of injured Alcaraz. 

However, consistency and real parity are not synonymous, and the numbers in the head-to-heads show the difference. Whatever ground Sascha has covered this year is still far from where Alcaraz and Sinner are sitting. 

Alexander Zverev vs Carlos Alcaraz: A rivalry which ‘seems’ close 

Zverev and Alcaraz have met 13 times in their career, with the Spaniard leading the series 7-6. Taking the gap in the absolute sense feels small, but when put in context feels much bigger. In the last five encounters between the pair, Alcaraz has won four of those matches, including this year’s Australian Open semifinal and the 2024 French Open final. In both of those matches, the German was leading the way, and the former world No. 1 came back to seal the victories. 

In the last 18 months, Alcaraz has gone 20-5 against top-10 opponents, registering an 80 percent winning rate, while Zverev posted a 5-18 record, barely even winning a quarter of those matches. Across their full careers, the 23-year-old has beaten top-10 players 55 times from 80 attempts, a 68.8 percent success rate, while Zverev sits at 59 wins from 146 attempts, just 40.4 percent. 

Titles also tell a similar story. The former world No. 1 has already won seven Grand Slam titles and 26 tour-level trophies, and held the No. 1 spot for almost 66 weeks. Zverev, by contrast, has never claimed the coveted No.1 ranking, just won his first Grand Slam title after grinding for 10 years, five Grand Slam finals and 12 semifinals. 

The head-to-head gap might be close between the two, but when things are considered as a whole, the German still has a long way to go. 

Alexander Zverev vs Jannik Sinner: One-sided rivalry

If the numbers against Alcaraz are unflattering, the picture against Sinner is considerably worse. Sinner leads their head-to-head record with 11-4, and an ongoing streak of 10 consecutive wins. The last time Zverev won against the Italian was back in the Round of 16 at the 2023 US Open. Five of those 10 defeats have come in this year alone, including a lopsided 6-1, 6-2 defeat in the Madrid final, a straight-sets loss in the semifinals of Indian Wells, Miami Open and Monte-Carlo, and finally the Wimbledon final itself, the pair’s first-ever meeting on grass.

In the last 18 months, no one has come close to Sinner. He has gone 29-5 against top 10 opponents, and out of those five defeats, three of them have come against Alcaraz. The world No. 1 also leads the Grand Slam race with five titles, and his current streak of winning every Masters title this year has even resulted in completing the Career Golden Masters. 

Sascha has not beaten Alcaraz in a year and a half, has not beaten Sinner in almost three years, and has never converted a lead in a Grand Slam final against either man into a trophy.

The only place German leaves both players behind is with an Olympic gold medal, which he won in the Tokyo Games by defeating Karen Khachanov in straight sets.

None of this means Kohlmann is wrong to point out how far Zverev has come. He won his first Grand Slam, reached a second consecutive major final, and secured the world No. 2 ranking. These are substantial accomplishments, which make him only the third player to do so other than Sinner and Alcaraz in recent times. His impressive results this year definitely put him in the conversation to challenge both players.