Alexander Zverev is only one win away from a very important goal. If he defeats Holger Rune in the first semi-final of the Rolex Paris Masters, Sascha will return to second place in the ATP standings by beating Carlos Alcaraz. The Spanish ace had appeared at the last Masters 1000 of the season with a good lead in the ATP ranking, but was eliminated already in the round of 16 by a great Ugo Humbert. If he drops to third place, the 21-year-old from Murcia may have to face world number 1 Jannik Sinner already in the group stage at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.
Alexander Zverev, Vienna 2024© Stream screenshot
Zverev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals in Paris-Bercy, establishing himself as the top favorite for victory in the last Masters 1000 of 2024. The German champion will have to pay close attention to Rune, who seems to have found his best tennis after a very disappointing season.
The young Dane has always found himself well in this tournament, where he won his first and only Masters 1000 of his career two years ago. The surface is ideal for the style of play of Zverev, which can take advantage of his excellent serve to get many points and be effective from the baseline.
Sascha will face Rune
The current World No.3 is considered a favorite to lift the trophy by the bookmakers, but he will not be able to afford distractions and must be good at managing the pressure. Sascha’s season has been quite positive, even if the German did not manage to finally win that Grand Slam title which is still missing in his bulletin board. Despite this failure, Alexander won the Masters 1000 in Rome and reached the final at the French Open, losing to Carlitos Alcaraz in five sets.
During the press conference after his win over Tsitsipas in Bercy, Zverev revealed that the 2025 Australian Open is his main medium-term goal: “I have a plan and I know what I need to improve by the Australian Open. It’s not a match-related issue, it’s not an issue of today or yesterday. It’s in my improvement plan. I see other players playing better than me on some points and I want to improve them. I trained for an hour, I just finished. I’m still in my practice uniform.”
Alexander Zverev, Vienna 2024© Stream screenshot
During the Laver Cup in Berlin in September, German was among the players who had spoken out most about the problems related to the ATP calendar. Players continue to complain that there are too many mandatory tournaments and that there is not enough time for rest and practice. There have been many accidents in recent years and there are increasing claims that a number of changes to the calendar would be desirable.
“If you want to fight for important things like being the world No 1 and winning Grand Slams, with this calendar, you have to play numerous weeks a year; that’s unsustainable” – Sascha recently stated. “This week we can talk, and we all agree on many things, but we can’t change anything. It’s all about money. Tournaments have licenses, and we can’t do anything against that. It’s impossible to eliminate tournaments just like that; we would have to compensate all those events because they have their licenses. It’s not viable.
I’ll listen to you, and we’ll boycott. We stop competing, stage a boycott, and then what? Do you think that would change anything? We’d lose money, other players would take our place, and nothing would change in the schedule. I only trust the steps being taken by the PTPA to make ourselves heard, but this is an issue that has no short-term solution” – he continued.
Zverev second favorite in Turin
The 2024 French Open finalist could be the second favorite to win the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, considering he loves that surface and has already won there in 2021. Zverev seems to be more effective than Alcaraz on the indoor hard courts, as Ivan Ljubicic also pointed out in a recent interview.
However, the German champion has often had difficulty in mastering his nerves under increased pressure and will have to prove that he has grown in this respect. Achieving a great result in Turin and building up confidence would be crucial for the 2025 Australian Open, where he will try to finally break this curse.
Alexander Zverev, Vienna 2024© Facebook – Erste Bank Open
Alexander played well at Melbourne Park this year and was one step away from the final before suffering a comeback by Daniil Medvedev. The Russian ace was more ready in the decisive moments of that match, showing that Sascha still lacks something to win the most important titles. The confirmation was at the French Open a few months later.