Alexander Zverev suffered an early exit at the hands of Lorenzo Musetti at the Paris Masters.
The German entered the tournament having become the world No 1, but he ended his Paris Masters campaign without picking up a single victory.
He was beaten 7-5, 6-2 by the Italian, which confirms that he ends his season without a single Masters 1000 triumph in the 2026 season.
Speaking after the match, Zverev was seemingly unhappy about Boris Becker’s recent comments about him and made it known in his press conference.
In a recent interview, Becker said of Zverev: “His parents are from Russia, he speaks Russian to his box on the court. He doesn’t comment politically on the war in Ukraine at all, which I personally understand, but of course it doesn’t go down so well.”
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Zverev was far from happy with those words stating: “I don’t know what’s going on with him right now, but I get the feeling he has to comment on everything I do. If he feels he needs that, then let him.
“I found it kind of strange that he thinks I have to express my political views,” “I’m not going to sit on Instagram and post long comments.
“That’s not me, I’ve never done that, and I never will. I think he’s just looking for anything right now to put me down a bit. He can do that, it’s his decision.”
Zverev has come under plenty of criticism recently, particularly with him becoming the new world No 1.
He was unhappy with critics suggesting he didn’t ‘deserve’ to be at the summit of the ATP Tour.
“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 said.
“I was a bit annoyed, to be honest, because achieving the world number one status is something that every player dreams of, he continued.
“But then I feel like I’m the only world number in tennis history that has to explain why it’s OK for me to be world number one, which I find quite difficult, because I think I deserve to be where I am, even though I lost today.”
Zverev will continue his 2026 season at the ATP Finals, where he is looking to win the year-end tournament for the third time in his career.
The German claimed his first ATP Finals title in 2018 and followed it up by winning his second in 2021. In 2025, however, he was knocked out in the round robin phase.
