When asked whether he would prefer to win a Grand Slam or become world No. 1, Alexander Zverev recounted how close he was to reaching the top of the rankings in 2022.
Zverev overtook Carlos Alcaraz at No. 2 in the latest ATP rankings after winning the Paris Masters title. He produced one of his best performances of 2024 to thrash Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
That puts Zverev in pole position to finish the season at No. 2. The German is 505 points ahead of Alcaraz in the rankings before the ATP Finals that start on November 10th in Turin.
This year's French Open runner-up will take additional confidence from winning the ATP Finals in 2018 and 2021. By contrast, Alcaraz has never reached a final on an indoor hardcourt during his young career so far.
However, Zverev is not getting carried away after overtaking Alcaraz in the rankings. The 27-year-old still believes the Spaniard and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner had better seasons because they won Grand Slams.
Zverev's excellent career so far has seen him win an Olympic gold medal, reach No. 2 in the rankings more than once, secure seven Masters 1000 titles, and claim the two ATP Finals titles already mentioned.
There are two significant achievements left for Zverev to achieve: winning a maiden Grand Slam title and becoming No. 1. He must wait until 2025 to try and do one or both of those things for the first time.
Despite the importance of the ATP Finals, Zverev admits he is already thinking about the Australian Open in January. That is why he practiced shortly after beating Humbert in the Paris Masters final.
Zverev's coming so close to winning a Grand Slam and becoming the No. 1 player in the past made him an ideal player to ask which achievement would mean more to him. He replied that becoming No. 1 without winning a Grand Slam is more difficult now than in 2022.
"I think it's very difficult to be World No. 1 without winning a slam.I had the chance in 2022 if I would have not gotten injured, so that's rare, because there it was still special occasions."
"There, obviously Novak didn't play a lot of events because he wasn't vaccinated. Rafa started the year very strong and got a bit hurt. It was a weird year. It was not like everybody was playing all the tournaments and they were in full strength all the tournaments. So it was different,"
The seven-time Masters champion thinks more players are playing at their highest level now, meaning winning a Grand Slam is needed to become No. 1. To illustrate his point, he mentioned how many points he remains behind world No. 1 Sinner.
"But I think now when everybody is playing and everybody is playing at full strength and everybody is healthy, you have to win Grand Slams to become World No. 1. I'm World No. 2 now, but I'm 3,000 points away from Jannik, more or less, maybe more even."