SHANGHAI — Alexander Zverev faces Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semi-finals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters on Saturday with the year-end world No.1 ranking already secured and the top spot itself within immediate reach. A victory over the Spanish 25th seed would make the German top seed the 30th world No.1 in ATP Rankings history on 2 November, whatever happens in the final and in Vienna, and even if he does not play another match this season. Zverev, still officially No.2, leads Davidovich Fokina 6-1 in their head-to-head, while Jannik Sinner — out for the rest of the season on 10,950 points — will lose 500 points after Vienna, with a win on Saturday taking Zverev to 10,320.
The oddity of the situation has not been lost on the 29-year-old, who noted the gap after his fourth-round win over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. “For now, I’m No. 2 in the world still, funny enough,” he said. He has deliberately held back the emotion until the ranking becomes official. “I think the emotions come when you actually see the No. 1 next to your name,” he said. “I think that will be, for sure, something special.” Asked if friends had already been in touch, he laughed: “Yeah, everybody.”
The ranking crowns a season in which Zverev leads the ATP Tour with 62 match wins, having won Roland Garros to become the first German man to take the title in the Open Era and having won the US Open after spending 23 hours and 11 minutes on court. That focus was so complete in New York that he missed the scrutiny around his own service routine. The heavy ball-bouncing before his serve began at the US Open and he only realised it had gone too far once the tournament was over. “I was not aware of it because my phone was off, I didn’t see social media and all that,” he said. After his quarter-final win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4, the chair umpire reminded him to watch the shot clock. Zverev said he is now doing it less and is working on it: “If I’m doing something that my opponents feel like I distract them, I don’t want to do it. I want to win with tennis.”
The week has also tested his body. Zverev said he first felt pain in his right ankle during his third-round win over France’s Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, and that it worsened from the middle of the second set against Bublik. It is the same ankle in which he tore three ligaments in the 2022 Roland Garros semi-final against Rafael Nadal, who led 7-6, 6-6 when Zverev stopped — still the only match he has ever retired from. “I’ve never retired in a tennis match in my life, except 2022 Roland Garros, where I really couldn’t walk,” he said. “I don’t want to retire with no reason.” Against de Minaur, he kept points short to manage the discomfort. “The longer the match goes, the worse my ankle gets,” he said. “I feel like today I was able to play so quickly that I didn’t have to play long rallies.”
Shanghai holds history for Zverev, who reached the final in 2019 losing to Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-1 and arrives for Saturday’s semi-final with a 17-7 record at the event. After Shanghai, his schedule takes in Vienna and the Rolex Paris Masters ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin from 15 to 22 November, for which he has already qualified.