Alexander Zverev asked to pick between world No 1 or Grand Slam triumph

Alexander Zverev claimed that winning a Grand Slam title and being world No 1 go “hand in hand” when asked which he would prefer to achieve.

The German impressed on his way to a first Paris Masters title last week, defeating Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-2 in Sunday’s final to claim the seventh Masters 1000 triumph of his career.

Zverev has returned to his career-high of world No 2 thanks to his victory, while he has previously twice finished as the runner-up at Grand Slam events.

He was beaten by Dominic Thiem in the 2020 US Open final, before losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open final earlier this season; both defeats came in five sets.

With 23 career titles and a high of No 2 to his name, Zverev is arguably among the greatest ATP players to never capture a major title.

And the German has come close to world No 1 in the past, though is currently over 3,000 points behind top-ranked Jannik Sinner.

Asked after his Paris Masters victory which milestone he would prefer, the 27-year-old admitted he did not think one achievement would come without the other.

He said: “I honestly think in today’s tennis, it goes hand in hand.

“I think it’s very difficult to be world No 1 without winning a Slam. I had the opportunity in 2022 if I hadn’t gotten injured, which is rare because it was still special occasions.

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“Now, obviously, Novak didn’t play a lot of events because he wasn’t vaccinated. Rafa started the year really strong and got injured a little bit. Medvedev got injured as well. He had back surgery that year.

“It was a weird year. It wasn’t like everyone was playing every tournament and being at full strength all year long. So it was different.

“But I think now that everyone is playing, everyone is playing at full capacity and everyone is healthy, you have to win Grand Slams to become world No 1.”

Zverev may be correct in his assessment, with only two men in ATP history reaching the world No 1 ranking without having previously won a Grand Slam title.

The first of those was Ivan Lendl, who would ultimately become an all-time great with eight major victories – though Marcelo Rios was never able to claim Grand Slam glory.

Zverev’s career has been a successful one but ultimately one of near misses when it comes to his hunt for an elusive major victory.

He was two sets up and served for the match in his US Open defeat to Thiem, while he was also two sets to one up versus Alcaraz at Roland Garros back in June.

The world No 2 was also beaten from two sets up in the Australian Open semi-final to Daniil Medvedev, while he lost from a similar scoreline to Taylor Fritz in the fourth round of Wimbledon.

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