Alexander Zverev

Zverev at the 2014 Bavarian International Tennis Championships

As the age of 14, Zverev entered qualifying at three different tournaments, including the 2011 Moselle Open on the ATP Tour, but lost all of his matches. He won his professional main draw debut against compatriot Christian Lichtenegger at a Futures event in Germany in August 2012. Towards the end of the year, he made his first professional final, finishing runner-up to Florian Reynet at an ITF $10K event in Florida.[25] Zverev continued to focus on the juniors in 2013 and did not reach another pro-level final that year.[26] However, he did make his main draw debut on the ATP Tour in July, losing to Roberto Bautista Agut at his hometown tournament, the International German Open.[27] He also made his ATP Challenger Tour debut, losing to Máximo González at the Meerbusch Challenger in August.[25]

After winning the boys' singles title at the 2014 Australian Open, Zverev shifted his focus to his professional career, only playing in pro events the rest of the year.[12][26] Initially, he struggled on the pro tour, failing to qualify for the main draw at his first five events of the season. He did not win a main draw match until he recorded a single victory at the Heilbronner Neckarcup Challenger, his tenth event of the year. One of his losses was a retirement against his brother Mischa.[25] Zverev made his first professional breakthrough in July when he won the Braunschweig Challenger for his first professional title, despite entering the tournament with just one career Challenger-level match win and no top 100 victories. Three of the players he defeated were in the top 100, including his first round opponent No. 87 Tobias Kamke, his semifinal opponent No. 56 Andrey Golubev, and his final opponent No. 89 Paul-Henri Mathieu.[28] At the age of 17 years and 2 months, he became the youngest player to win a Challenger title since Bernard Tomic in 2009 and the twelfth youngest in history.[29]

Zverev followed up this title with a breakthrough at the ATP Tour level. He entered the International German Open having never won an ATP match, but managed to reach the semifinals. He recorded four match wins at the event, including his first career victory against Robin Haase and his first top 20 victory over No. 16 Mikhail Youzhny before losing to No. 7 David Ferrer. He became the first 17-year old to defeat a top 20 opponent since Richard Gasquet in 2004 and the first to make a semifinal since Marin Čilić in 2006.[30] Zverev had risen from No. 665 to No. 285 after his Challenger title, and his ATP 500 Series semifinal appearance took him to No. 161 in the world. He finished the season ranked No. 136.[31]

Zverev at the 2015 US Open

At the beginning of the season, Zverev was still ranked too low to receive direct entry into the main draws of ATP Tour events, which forced him to continue playing Challenger events through July. He also needed to enter qualifying for ATP events throughout the year. Zverev did not qualify for either of the first two Grand Slam singles events of the season.[25] He was able to qualify for his first Masters event at the Miami Open and reached the second round.[32] During the clay court season, Zverev partnered with his brother Mischa to reach his first career ATP final in doubles at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships. The Zverev brothers finished runner-up to top-seeded Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.[33] Later that month, he won his second career Challenger title at the Heilbronn Neckarcup to crack the top 100 of the ATP rankings.[34]

With a higher ranking, Zverev was directly accepted into Wimbledon. A week before the tournament, he took part in the Boodles Challenge exhibition and surprisingly upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets.[35] Zverev backed up this performance in his Grand Slam main draw debut, defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili in a tight match that lasted until 9–7 in the fifth and final set.[36] He lost in the next round to Denis Kudla. Zverev opted to play on clay after Wimbledon and reached another ATP semifinal at the Swedish Open to put him back in the top 100 after one week out.[37][31] In August, Zverev returned to the United States and competed in two US Open Series events. He notably upset No. 14 Kevin Anderson at the Citi Open en route to the quarterfinals.[38][39] Zverev's brief rankings drop in July meant that he needed to qualify for the 2015 US Open. He succeeded, but lost his opening round match to compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber in five sets.[40] Zverev won just one more main draw match the rest of the season and ended the year ranked No. 83 in the world.[41][31] As the youngest player in the top 100, he was named the ATP Newcomer of the Year.[42]

Zverev at the 2016 US Open

Zverev's first ATP event of the year was the Australian Open, where he had a difficult draw against world No. 2 Andy Murray and was only able to win six games in his opening match.[43] He bounced back at the Open Sud de France, reaching the semifinals in the singles event and his second career final with his brother in the doubles event.[44] During the singles event, he upset No. 13 Marin Čilić, the highest ranked player he had defeated in an official match at the time.[45] Zverev then produced a strong result at the Indian Wells Masters, where he defeated two top 30 players. In the fourth round, he nearly upset No. 5 Rafael Nadal. Zverev had a match point while he was serving for the final set, but missed a routine forehand volley and then proceeded to lose 14 of the remaining 15 points in the match. He commented on the match point that, "I missed probably the easiest shot I had the whole match."[46] Back in Europe, Zverev was able to recover as he reached his first ATP singles final at the Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, finishing runner-up to No. 15 Dominic Thiem, the top seed and the defending champion.[47] Thiem would also defeat him in the third round of the French Open.[48]

Zverev's next breakthrough came during the grass court season at the Halle Open, where he upset world No. 3 Roger Federer in the semifinals, ending Federer's streak of ten consecutive appearances in the final while competing at the tournament.[50] He was also the first teenager to defeat Federer since Murray nearly a decade earlier.[49] Nonetheless, he finished runner-up at the event to veteran compatriot Florian Mayer.[51] After this final, he entered the top 30 for the first time and stayed ranked in the 20s for the rest of the season.[31] Despite being seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, Zverev could then only match his best Grand Slam singles result at Wimbledon, again falling to Berdych.[52] During the US Open Series, he reached the semifinals of the Washington Open,[53] but lost his opening round matches at both Masters events. He was then upset in the second round of the US Open by Dan Evans.[54]

After the US Open, Zverev returned to Europe and won his first career ATP title at the St. Petersburg Open. He recorded his first win over No. 9 Berdych in the semifinals and defeated No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the final, coming back from 0–3 down in the third set.[55] At his next event, he then defeated No. 10 Thiem in the first round of the 2016 China Open for the first time in four tries this year. In doing so, he became the first teenager to record three consecutive victories against top ten opponents since Boris Becker in 1986.[56][57] Zverev's third round appearance at the Shanghai Masters then helped him rise to No. 20 in the ATP rankings, making him the youngest player to debut in the top 20 since Novak Djokovic in 2006.[58]

Zverev at the 2017 Washington Open

During the 2017 season, Zverev greatly improved his results at the higher level tournaments on the ATP Tour except for the Grand Slam events. At the Australian Open, Zverev again pushed Rafael Nadal to the brink, but ultimately lost in five sets.[59] His next ATP tournament was the Open Sud de France, where he won both the singles and doubles events. He and his brother defeated Fabrice Martin and Daniel Nestor for Alexander's first doubles title.[60] The following month, he made his first Masters quarterfinal at the Miami Open, upsetting No. 3 Stan Wawrinka along the way.[61] Nick Kyrgios defeated him at both Masters events that month.[62]

After a slow start to the clay court season, Zverev won two more titles in May, the first of which came at home in Germany at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships.[63] He then followed up a second Masters quarterfinal at the Madrid Open with his first Masters title at the Rome Masters. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final to become the youngest Masters champion since Djokovic in 2007 and the first such champion born in the 1990s. With the title, he also entered the top 10 for the first time.[64][65] Despite his triumph in Rome, he lost his opening round match at the French Open.[66] During the grass court season, Zverev made another singles final and again faced Federer at the Halle Open, but could not defeat him this time.[67] He and his brother also finished runner-up in the doubles event to Łukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.[68] At Wimbledon, he achieved his best result at a Grand Slam event to date, ultimately losing to the previous year's runner-up Milos Raonic in a tight five set match.[69]

Back on hard courts, Zverev won his last two titles of the season in August. He won the Washington Open as well as a second consecutive Masters title at the Canadian Open, only dropping a single set at each tournament in each of his opening matches.[70] Notably, he needed to save three match points in his first match in Canada against Richard Gasquet, including a 49 shot rally.[71] He then defeated Roger Federer in the final to become the first player outside of the Big Four to win multiple Masters titles in the same season since David Nalbandian in 2007.[72][73] Despite this success, he was upset in the second round of the US Open by fellow Next Gen player Borna Ćorić.[74] At the end of the season, Zverev qualified for both the inaugural Next Generation Finals as one of the top seven 21-and-under players, and the ATP Finals as one of the top eight players in the world. He opted to skip the former event to focus on the latter.[75] At the ATP Finals, Zverev was grouped with Roger Federer, Marin Čilić, and Jack Sock. He defeated Čilić in his first match, but lost his final two matches and did not advance out of his round robin group.[76][77][78] Zverev finished the year ranked No. 4, peaking at No. 3 right before the ATP Finals, and accumulated five ATP titles from just six finals.[25][31]

Zverev with the champion's trophy at the 2018 Washington Open

Zverev maintained his top 5 ranking throughout the year.[31] However, he still did not deliver any high-caliber results at the Grand Slam tournaments. He was upset at the Australian Open by reigning Next Gen Finals champion and No. 59 Chung Hyeon in five sets in the third round. Zverev stated that issues at majors were "definitely not physical" when asked if his problems were physical or mental, and also attribute this lack of success to the extra pressure he was putting on himself at these events.[79] Zverev did not reach his first final of the year until early April at the Miami Masters. Despite taking the first set of the final, he finished runner-up to American John Isner, who had never previously won a Masters title.[80]

Zverev continued his Masters success into the clay court season, reaching the semifinals at the Monte Carlo Masters,[81] winning his third career Masters title at the Madrid Open, and making the final at the Rome Masters. In Madrid, he defeated Dominic Thiem in the final to become the only active player outside of the Big Four to have won three Masters titles.[82] He came close to winning back-to-back Masters events, going up a break in the third set against Nadal at the Italian Open. However, Nadal was able to recover and win the final five games of the match after a rain delay.[83] Zverev had also defended his title at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships in his only other French Open tune-up to help build up a 13 match win streak that lasted until the Italian Open final.[84] He capped off his excellent clay court season by reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open. He needed to win three five-set matches to get that far before Thiem ended his run while he was faced with a hamstring injury.[85]

Up until the year-end championships, Zverev struggled to build on his early season success. He lost in the third round at both Wimbledon and the US Open,[86][87] and his best result at the four remaining Masters events was a semifinal at the Shanghai Masters.[88] He was able to defend his title at the Washington Open, his only title during this period.[89] Zverev also reached two more doubles finals with his brother, but did not win either of them.[90][91] At the end of the season, Zverev qualified for both the Next Generation Finals and the ATP Finals for the second consecutive year, again choosing to only compete at the latter event. He was placed in a group with Novak Djokovic, Marin Čilić, and John Isner. This year, Zverev was able to advance out of the group, only losing to No. 1 Djokovic in the round robin.[92][93] He faced Federer in the semifinals and defeated him in straight sets to set up a rematch with Djokovic.[94] Despite being a heavy underdog and having just lost to Djokovic earlier in the week, Zverev won the final in straight sets for the tenth and biggest title of his career. He became the youngest tour champion since Djokovic a decade earlier and the first German to win the season-ending championships since Boris Becker in 1995. This was also Zverev's first victory over a current world No. 1 player.[95][96]

Zverev at the 2019 French Open

Zverev opened his 2019 season with a fourth round appearance at the Australian Open, defeating Jérémy Chardy in five sets in the second round before losing to Milos Raonic in straight sets.[97][98] Zverev next played at the Mexican Open and finished runner-up to Nick Kyrgios.[99] Following this tournament, he did not win more than one match at any of his next six events, a streak that ended with two match wins at the Madrid Open.[25][100] Nonetheless, Zverev finished the clay court season strong. The week before the French Open, he won his only title of the year at the Geneva Open, defeating Nicolás Jarry in the final after saving two match points in the third set tiebreak.[101] He then went on to defeat No. 12 Fabio Fognini and reach his second consecutive quarterfinal at the French Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.[102] Zverev did not follow through on that success into the grass court season, where his best result was a quarterfinal at the Halle Open.[103] He was upset in the first round at both the Stuttgart Open and Wimbledon, the latter of which to qualifier Jiří Veselý.[104] Zverev attributed his early season struggles to being distracted by a legal dispute with his former agent Patricio Apey, with whom he had split from in the offseason.[105]

Zverev began to turn his season around following Wimbledon. He reached the semifinals of the German Open and the quarterfinals at the Canadian Open.[106][107] He then reached the fourth round at the US Open for the first time, where he lost to seed No. 20 Diego Schwartzman to continue his lack of success at the Grand Slam tournaments.[108] He had also fallen out of the top 5 in early August for the first time in nearly two years.[31] Zverev's best result of the season came at the Shanghai Masters. He upset No. 3 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals before finishing runner-up to No. 4 Daniil Medvedev,[109][110] who was playing in his sixth consecutive final.[111] This performance helped him qualify for the ATP Finals at the end of the year. At the event, Zverev was drawn into a round-robin group with Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Daniil Medvedev. He defeated Nadal for the first time in his opening match before losing to Tsitsipas.[112] He then won his match against Medvedev, which he had needed to win to advance via the tiebreak criteria. Nonetheless, he could not defend his title, losing to Dominic Thiem in the semifinals.[113] Zverev finished the season at No. 7 in the world.[31]

Zverev began his 2020 season at the inaugural ATP Cup, playing singles matches against Alex De Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Denis Shapovalov; losing all three.

He was seeded seventh at the 2020 Australian Open. He first defeated Marco Cecchinato in straight sets; after the match, he pledged to donate all his prize money from the tournament to relief efforts for the ongoing bushfires if he won the title, a total of A$4.12 million.[114] He then defeated Egor Gerasimov, Fernando Verdasco, and 17th seed Andrey Rublev to reach the quarterfinals without dropping a set. There, he defeated 15th seed Stan Wawrinka in four sets to reach his first Grand Slam singles semifinal, where he lost against fifth seed Dominic Thiem in four sets.

At the 2020 US Open, Zverev was seeded fifth. He defeated Kevin Anderson in four sets, then beat 19-year old Brandon Nakashima in four sets. In the third round, he beat Adrian Mannarino in four sets before beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, he beat Borna Coric in four sets to reach his second grand slam semifinal. There, he lost the first two sets to Pablo Carreno Busta, but came back to win the match in five; this was his first-ever match win from two sets down. He thus advanced to his first major final, where he faced Dominic Thiem. He became the runner-up, losing the final in a final-set tiebreaker to Dominic Thiem after leading by two sets and serving for the championship in the fifth set.[115]

Zverev was seeded 6th at the 2020 French Open. He beat Dennis Novak, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Marco Cecchinato, before losing in four sets to Jannik Sinner.

In October, he won two consecutive ATP 250 events in Cologne, which took place in the 2020 ATP Tour because of the cancellation of several tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the finals, he defeated Félix Auger-Aliassime and Diego Schwartzman, both in straight sets.[116]

Zverev then reached the final of the Paris Masters, beating Nadal in straight sets in the semifinals,[117] where he lost to Daniil Medvedev in three sets.[118]

In the ATP Finals, Zverev was eliminated in the group stage after a three set win over Diego Schwartzman and straight set losses to Djokovic and eventual champion Medvedev.[119]

Zverev took part in the inaugural Laver Cup in Prague in 2017. He accrued four points by winning both of his singles matches for Team Europe as they defeated Team World 15–9.[120] He played a more crucial role in 2018 and 2019, winning the clinching matches in both editions against Kevin Anderson and Milos Raonic respectively.[121][122]

Zverev made his Davis Cup debut for Germany against the Czech Republic in 2016. He faced No. 7 Tomáš Berdych in his debut match and took a two sets to one lead before ultimately losing in five sets.[123] After the Czech Republic won the doubles rubber while Kohlschreiber won both singles matches, Zverev faced Lukáš Rosol in a decisive fifth rubber. Rosol won the match easily to send the Czech Republic into the next round.[124] In the 2017 against Belgium, Zverev recorded his first career match win in the competition against Arthur De Greef, but lost the doubles rubber with his brother as well as his second singles match to Steve Darcis. Belgium won the tie 4–1.[125] Zverev won his first Davis Cup tie in 2018, winning both of his singles matches against Alex de Minaur and Kyrgios to lead Germany to a 3–1 victory over Australia.[126] In the quarterfinals, Germany took a 2–1 lead against Spain behind Zverev's win over David Ferrer and a victory in doubles. However, Spain ultimately won the tie on the final day after Zverev was unable to defeat Nadal and Kohlschreiber lost a tight five-set match to Ferrer.[127]

In 2019, the format of the Davis Cup was changed to have eighteen countries competing in the finals over a single week in November, all but six of which were decided through a qualifying round in February. Germany was placed in the qualifying round and drawn against Hungary. Zverev participated and won both of his singles matches as Germany won the tie 5–0.[128] He did not participate in the finals in November, in which Germany lost in the quarterfinals.[129]

Zverev represented Germany at the Hopman Cup for four consecutive years from 2016 through 2019 with three different partners. In 2016, he competed with Sabine Lisicki. The duo won their tie against the French team, with Zverev winning both his singles and mixed doubles matches.[130] However, they were shut out against Great Britain and Australia Green and did not advance to the final.[131][132] The following year, he entered the competition with Andrea Petkovic. While the pair only won their tie against Great Britain, Zverev also defeated Federer in singles in his first tournament back from injury.[133]

Zverev had much more success in 2018 and 2019 when he paired up with Angelique Kerber. In their first year together, they were able to advance to the final, primarily on the strength of the pair winning all three of their mixed doubles matches.[134] In the final against Switzerland, Zverev lost his singles match to Federer.[135] Although Kerber won her singles match against Belinda Bencic, they lost the decisive mixed doubles rubber.[136] They returned in 2019 and again reached the final to set up a rematch of the previous year's final with Federer and Bencic. In a round robin group with Australia, France, and Spain, the two of them won all six of their singles matches, but lost two of their three mixed doubles matches against Australia and France.[137] Like the previous year, the final was decided by the mixed doubles match after Federer defeated Zverev and Kerber defeated Bencic. With the Fast4 format, the match went to three sets. In the third set tiebreak, both teams had a match point at 4–4. Switzerland won the point with Federer serving to win the title.[138]

Current through the 2020 ATP Finals.

Source: ITF profile[25]