Alexander Zverev says he has been "annoyed" by the reaction to him becoming the ATP world number one for the first time. The 29-year-old German, who won the French Open and US Open titles in 2026, claims he is the only tennis player who "has to explain why it's OK" for him to be top of the rankings.
Zverev lost his first match as world number one to Italy's Lorenzo Musetti at the Paris Masters on Wednesday, going down 7-6 (7-5) 6-2. He received a bye through the first round and was presented with the world number one trophy on Monday.
"I don't think anybody had to explain themselves as much as I had to do in the last couple of days, which for me, is annoying, to be honest," Zverev said. "I feel like I'm the only world number one in tennis history that has to explain why it's OK for me to be world number one, which I find quite difficult, because I think I deserve to be where I am, even though I lost today."
Context of Zverev's ascent
Zverev's rise to the top comes in a year where Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have struggled with injuries. Before this year's French Open, Sinner and Alcaraz had shared the past nine Grand Slam titles, with Sinner beating Zverev in the 2025 Australian Open final. Zverev has lost each of his 10 most recent meetings with Sinner, who has not played since Wimbledon due to a knee injury and dropped to number two. He has also lost four of his past five matches against Alcaraz, who missed large parts of the season with a wrist injury.
Zverev holds a 62-8 win-loss record against opponents ranked 11 and below this year, but only three wins in 12 matches against top-10 players. His ascent has also led to previous accusations of physical abuse by two former partners being highlighted again; Zverev has always firmly maintained his innocence and insisted the allegations are baseless.
Reflecting on his performance against Musetti, Zverev said: "To simplify it, he played really good and I played really bad. I think this was not a very good match from me, I think it might be one of the worst in the last couple of months."
