After losing earlier than expected at the Paris Masters, Alexander Zverev accepted a late entry into the 2023 Sofia Open.
The German is one of those players who wanted to make sure to book his spot at the 2023 ATP Finals, even though he made a pretty big push late this year. He played a lot of tennis lately but suffered a couple of early exits, which left him vulnerable to getting knocked out of the Race for Turin.
The Paris Masters is the biggest event in this part of the calendar, with the most points up for grabs. Zverev struggled at the event, barely beating Fucsovics and barely pulling through against Humbert.
That win against the Frenchman was hugely important as it got him an additional 90 points. You might not think it's that much, but at this part of the year, every point counts.
He ultimately lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas before making the quarter-final, which put his Turin spot at risk as both Hubert Hurkacz and Alex de Minaur, the players in pursuit, remained in the draw.
Hurkacz lost to Grigor Dimitrov, taking himself out of the equation, and de Minaur was bested by Andrey Rublev, meaning that the German player secured his spot in the year-end competition.
Yet, the German opted to enter the Sofia Open to cover for anything unexpected. He might actually need a few more matches to sort out his game because he didn't look that great in Paris, but he may possibly be also tired.
We'll see what happens as there are many moving pieces, but as of right now, Zverev will be in Sofia, Bulgaria next week, playing at the ATP 250 event. We'll see if he'll be in action the week ahead of at the 2023 ATP Finals, which will be played in Turin, Italy.
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