Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Alexander Zverev won two grand slam titles and reached another final this year. He was the best player in the biggest events.
He’s not ready to call himself the best player in tennis though.
Ben Shelton seemed willing to at least consider it after Zverev beat him 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday in the US Open final to add that trophy to the French Open title he won in June.
“You’re one of the very best players in the world, maybe the best player in the world this year,” Shelton told Zverev during the trophy presentation.
This year, of course, was different to last year.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were injured at times during the majors
Alcaraz won the Australian Open but had to miss the French Open and Wimbledon with a right wrist injury, not playing from April till the US Open.
Sinner beat Zverev in the Wimbledon final, but then the top-ranked player in men’s tennis couldn’t play in New York because of a knee injury.
Alcaraz and Sinner met in the last three grand slam finals of 2025.
Zverev took all that into consideration when asked if he considered himself the best player in men’s tennis.
“With Jannik Sinner being injured and Carlos Alcaraz coming back from injury after four months, right now, this moment, probably yes. Both of them healthy and both of them at the top of their game, maybe not,” Zverev said.
“But if we say right now with Jannik being injured and Carlos coming back from injury, maybe. I mean, four, five months ago when both of them were healthy, I wasn’t. I was losing to Jannik all the time. So if everyone is healthy, I think Jannik is still ahead. It’s as simple as that.”
Zverev did his job in the majors by beating the players who were there.
He went 25-2 in the four biggest tournaments and was the only man to reach the semi-finals of all four.
Forced to play five-setters in each of the first two rounds of the US Open – the first top-seeded man to do that in the Open era that dates to 1968 – he didn’t drop another set until the final.
