A year ago, Alexander Zverev left the Shanghai Masters visibly upset after a loss to Arthur Rinderknech. He told reporters that his season had been terrible and that he was playing terrible tennis all round. Twelve months later, the German has found a very different feeling in the same city.

Zverev has clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking. It became official on Monday, when Carlos Alcaraz lost 7-5, 7-6(4) to Zizou Bergs in the third round of the Shanghai Masters, ending the Spaniard’s last mathematical chance of catching him. The 39th-ranked Belgian hit 24 winners to Alcaraz’s 16 and earned two match points in the second-set tiebreak, which he converted. The door was already open due to Jannik Sinner’s season-ending knee injury. At 29, Zverev will become the oldest player to earn the year-end honor for the first time.

“It’s been a fantastic season for me winning in Paris and New York and knowing that I will finish the year on top of the rankings is just a dream come true,” Zverev stated after achieving the milestone. “So much work and effort have been put into achieving this goal, especially after coming back from the ankle injury. I look forward to finishing the season in style.” 

The injury he mentioned goes back to the 2022 French Open semifinal against Rafael Nadal, when he severely twisted his right ankle and left the court in a wheelchair. It was one of the lowest moments of his career, and that makes this peak feel even greater. Even if Zverev loses every match till the end of the season, he will still secure the year-end No. 1 ranking.  The ranking is secured, but the story around it is far from finished.

Zverev is not world No. 1 just yet. He is currently No. 2, and the earliest he can overtake Sinner in the official rankings is November 2. He is mathematically certain of finishing the season on top once the final rankings come out on November 23. Sinner has not played since beating Zverev in the Wimbledon final in July, and he has now ruled himself out for the rest of the year. He will become only the second German man to do so, after Boris Becker in 1991, and the 30th player overall to achieve this coveted ranking. 

The German won the French Open and the US Open with at least one of Sinner or Alcaraz absent through injury. It doesn’t take anything away from the titles, but it does shed light on why the race went his way. Besides his two Grand Slam wins, he reached the Wimbledon final and the Australian Open semifinals. He also notched his 60th tour-level win of the season by beating Quentin Halys on Sunday. In 2024, he ended the year at No. 2 for the first time in his career, and this time he has bettered that. 

After Halys victory, Zverev shared that he has picked his moments to pick this season and that strategy has clearly worked. There is still plenty to play for. The 28-year-old will head to the Paris Masters after Shanghai and then the ATP Finals in November as the top seed, with only 200 points to defend in Turin and aiming for a third title there. 

First, he faces Alexander Bublik in the Shanghai fourth round on Tuesday. The Kazakh leads the head-to-head with 3-1 against the top seed, with the latest win coming at the Halle Open 2023 in the semifinal, where Bublik won the match in straight sets. 

The German is still looking for his first title in Shanghai, his best performance came in 2019 when he finished as runner-up. With the ranking secured, he can chase the rest of the season in exactly the way he said he wanted to, in style.