Alexander Zverev is currently enjoying his best-ever year in tennis.

After three successive Grand Slam final losses earlier in his career, Zverev claimed his maiden Grand Slam title at this year’s French Open. He lost the Wimbledon final shortly after, but recovered in superb fashion by winning the US Open.

How long do you think Alexander Zverev keeps the number one ranking?

He is now guaranteed to be year end number one after Carlos Alcaraz's shock loss in Shanghai…

The experienced German has been rewarded in many ways for his hard work on and off the court, and that includes Zverev shortly becoming the year-end ATP number one. He will become the 30th number one in men’s tennis history, and the 20th to finish the year as world number one.

Staying there for as long as possible will be among his next goals, but the 29-year-old does have some way to go to catch the 11 ATP players who have managed to end the year as number one on multiple occasions, with Novak Djokovic leading the way.

The ATP players with the most year-end number ones

As he often does, Djokovic tops the list, with the Serbian legend boasting eight year-end number ones. Following closely behind is Pete Sampras with six, while Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors and Rafael Nadal all finished their glittering careers with five.

Next in the list are Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe with four, with the quartet of Bjorn Borg, Lleyton Hewitt, Stefan Edberg and Zverev’s current rival Carlos Alcaraz each with two.

It’s an exclusive and iconic list, and one that the impending year-end number one can be very proud of joining. And while he is just shy of becoming a multiple holder of the title, he can take pride in matching the one year-end number one finishes of the likes of Jannik Sinner, Jim Courier, Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi and Andy Murray, among others.

This year’s year-end number one is currently taking a break from ATP action, with Zverev losing to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his most recent match. They met in the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters, with the Spaniard going on to defeat his compatriot Rafael Jodar in the final.

Remarkably, Davidovich Fokina has more Masters 1000 titles to his name than Zverev in 2026, with the German claiming his only titles at the French Open and US Open. But the latter can match the former at the Paris Masters, which he will be using as preparation for the ATP Finals in Turin.