Alexander Zverev said he was “annoyed” that he had to justify his new status as the world No. 1, as he lost his first match since reaching the top of the rankings.
The German won his first two Grand Slam titles this year at Roland Garros and the US Open, capitalising on periods when Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were sidelined by injuries. Once Sinner ended his 2026 season due to a knee injury, Zverev was all but guaranteed to end the year as the world No. 1.
He secured the top spot with a run to the Vienna Open semi-finals last week. The 29-year-old finally reached the top of the ATP rankings on Monday, and received his world No. 1 trophy during an on-court ceremony at the Paris Masters that evening. He did not play his opening match until Wednesday, however, having received a bye directly into round two as the top seed.
Shock Defeat to Musetti
Zverev got a brutal draw, coming up against in-form Lorenzo Musetti, a former top-five player who has dropped out of the top 20 following some injury absences. They played a close first set, and Zverev led 5-2 in the tiebreak. But he fell away, allowing the Italian to claim a 7-6(5) 6-2 victory.
Afterwards, the 2024 champion in Paris hit out at those who had forced him to “explain himself” after reaching No. 1, likely due to Alcaraz and Sinner’s absences and the role that played in his rise to the top.
Asked whether his new status caused any stress, Zverev replied: “Stress, I don't know if stress. I was a bit annoyed, to be honest, the last couple of days, because, you know, achieving the world No. 1 status is something that I think every player dreams of, but then I feel like I'm the only world No. 1 in tennis history that has to explain why it's okay for me to be world No. 1, which I find quite difficult, because I think I deserve to be where I am, even though I lost today.
“I don't think anybody had to explain themselves as much as I had to do in the last couple of days, which for me, is annoying, to be honest.”
Zverev Admits Poor Performance
While Zverev thought he had been unfairly criticised for becoming the 30th No. 1 in ATP history, he conceded that he played a “bad” match against Musetti and deserved to lose.
“To simplify it, he played really good and I played really bad, if you want to simplify it. Yeah, just the way it is. [I need to] improve, than today, probably everything, because I think this was not a very good match for me, I think maybe one of the worst in the last couple of months,” the top seed added.
The courts have been sped up at this year’s Paris Masters, and world feed broadcasts have shown a court pace index of around 47 – by far the fastest of all the Masters 1000 events this year. While Zverev seemed to struggle with the pace, he was still glad to see the change made.
“The way it is, the court, yeah, was very, very fast, but I actually think that this is the court that it should be during the indoor season,” he said. “Yeah, I was bad. It's quite simple. There's no excuses. It's like that.”
