Alexander Zverev has earned his place at the top of the ATP Tour rankings after his exploits at the Vienna Open.

The German needed to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament in order to confirm his place above Jannik Sinner in the rankings.

He has gone one further at the Vienna Open after beating Arthur Fery in the last eight to set up a semifinal clash against Alex de Minaur at the indoor tournament.

Zverev had already been confirmed to become the year-end world No 1 following Jannik Sinner’s decision to end his season early, but he will surely be delighted to wrap it up with two more tournaments to go.

Despite overtaking him in the rankings, Zverev will still not go as so far as to say he is better than Jannik Sinner, who he has struggled against in previous meetings.

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“I’d be an idiot to sit here and say I was as good as Jannik Sinner. I wasn’t. I was the second-best player because Carlos Alcaraz was injured and couldn’t play,” said Zverev at the Vienna Open.

“Fitness is a big part of the sport. About five to six hours of fitness training a day and played an hour of tennis. So the focus is much more on fitness, so that I stay fit and don’t get injured. So that in the fifth set I feel just as fit as in the first.”

Zverev has a wretched recent record against Sinner on the ATP Tour, having lost his last 10 matches against the Italian in the last three seasons.

Those 10 matches have nearly all come on the bigger stages too, with nine of the matches taking place at Masters or Grand Slam level.

Five of those matches came in the first half of the 2026 season, with Sinner beating Zverev at Indian Wells, the Miami Open, the Monte Carlo Masters, the Madrid Open, and Wimbledon.

Zverev has achieved four victories against Sinner earlier in his career, two of which came at the US Open in 2021 and 2023, but he’s still a long way behind the Italian in their head-to-head record.

The German currently trails his head-to-head against Sinner with four victories from their 15 matches, so he still has a long way to go to try and topple the Italian.

Nevertheless, Zverev currently sits above Sinner in the ATP Tour rankings and he will likely establish a very healthy lead before the Italian returns to action in the 2027 season.

Zverev is set to finish his campaign at the Vienna Open, before heading off to the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals.