By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, November 15, 2026
Photo credit: Rick Munroe/Wikimedia Commons
Reigning ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner stood shoulder to shoulder with a swarm of world No. 1 champions today.
Prior to the start of the tournament, the ATP Finals honored former world No. 1 champions, including Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Guga Kuerten, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin and Sinner in Turin.
Emerging from Sinner’s shadow, new world No. 1 Alexander Zverev swept Rafael Jodar, 6-4, 6-4, then staked his case for his status as world’s best player this season.
Despite a 4-9 record vs. Top 10 opponents in 2026, including an ignominious 0-5 mark against Sinner, Zverev asserts he is the world’s best player because of his major achievements this year.
The former Olympic gold-medal champion said winning two of the four Grand Slams and bowing to Sinner in the Wimbledon final solidify his status as true No. 1. Zverev has posted an ATP-best 66-18 record this season capturing the Roland Garros and US Open championships as both Sinner and former No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz battled injuries.
“It’s a complicated question, because I definitely think I had the best season out of everybody. I think, out of respect, you have to take into consideration that, yes, Jannik has been injured since Wimbledon,” Zverev told the media in Turin today. “There’s no question about that. And Carlos has been injured for a little bit of time this year, as well.
“I think at Grand Slams, which are the biggest tournaments in the world, and this is what I always try to achieve and this is what my aim was this year, I was the best player in the world, for sure. I won two of them, made semis of another one, was one service game from making the final there, and was in the final of Wimbledon as well.”
Last May, the top-seeded Sinner destroyed Zverev 6-1, 6-2 to capture his maiden Madrid championship—and create massive Masters 1000 history.
Sinner made dual history collecting his record fifth consecutive ATP Masters 1000 championship—Paris, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo and Madrid—and becoming the first man to win the first four ATP Masters 1000 titles of a season. Sinner went on to defeat Casper Ruud and win his first Rome championship, scoring his record-extending 34th consecutive Masters 1000 match victory. Sinner joined Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic as just the second man in Open Era history to complete the Golden Masters—winning all nine ATP Masters 1000 championships—and he’s the only man to sweep six in a row at the 1000 level.
“He’s a robot, not a human being,” Zverev joked of Sinner today. “So cut six [of my Top 10 losses]. One against Carlos, that’s seven, right? And the other two, I’m not sure who they are. But the top 10 this year has changed so much, and I think that how we look at the rankings and how the top 10 has started and how the top 10 looks right now, it’s such a big difference.
“If you look at the record against the players that are here, who are now currently the eight best players in the world. I have a 6-2 record against them all.”
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