By Jürgen Fritz, Tue 24 Aug 2021, Cover picture: ATP Tennis TV-Screenshot
After his Olympic victory, Alexander Zverev was the world No. 2 for a fortnight. But then Daniil Medvedev overtook him again with his victory in the Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto last week. After his title win at the Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, his sixth tournament win in the last 52 weeks, Zverev is now back at No. 2 in the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking.
Zverev is world No. 2 again, Ruud is in the top ten for the first time
With his win in Cincinnati (C: 40 points) Alexander Zverev regained the position 2 in the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking. It was already Zverev’s fourth title this season and his sixth in the last 52 weeks. The German has thus won more singles tournaments in the last twelve months than any other player in the world.
Men’s singles title in the last 52 weeks
- Alexander Zverev: 6
- Daniil Medvedev: 5 (+ ATP Cup with Russia)
- Carlos Alcaraz: 5 (4 of them on the Challenger Tour)
- Novak Djokovic: 4
- Casper Ruud: 4 (only E-tournaments, ATP 250s)
- Andrey Rublev: 3 (+ ATP Cup with Russia)
- Jannik Sinner: 3
- Aslan Karatsev: 3 (2 of which on the Challenger Tour)
- Sebastian Korda: 3 (2 of which on the Challenger Tour)
This was also Zverev’s fifth Masters 1000 title. This means that Zverev has not only won more B tournaments (Olympics and the ATP Finals), but also more C tournaments than all active players under 34.
Active players with more than one Masters 1000 (C) title
- Novak Djokovic (34 years): 36 C-title
- Rafael Nadal (35): 36 C title
- Roger Federer (40): 28 C title
- Andy Murray (34): 14 C title
- Alexander Zverev (24): 5 C title
- Daniil Medvedev (25): 4 C title
- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (36): 2 C title
Zverev become the first German champion in Cincinnati since Boris Becker in 1985. He beat the new world No. 10 Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals, No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals and No. 5 Andrey Rublev in the final in just 59 minutes in two straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Zverev now has a match record of 11-0 since the Olympics. This was the eighth time Zverev has competed in Cincinnati. In his seven previous attempts since 2014, he had not won a single match in the main draw and was always eliminated. But this time everything was to be completely different.
“The first win I ever had on these courts was on Wednesday, four days ago, and now I have my first title here,” Zverev said in his on-court interview. “It has been an incredible week, a lot of great matches. It is an incredible feeling going into the US Open. I don’t want to get ahead of myself yet. I won the gold medal and just won a Masters, which I am very happy about and am looking forward to New York.”
At the US Open, which starts next week, Zverev is now one of the absolute top favourites to win the tournament alongside Djokovic, Medvedev and Tstsipas. A Grand Slam title is the only thing the 24-year-old still lacks in his title collection.
The Norwegian Casper Ruud, who won three E tournaments (ATP 250) in three weeks on European clay in July and now reached the quarter-finals in both Toronto and Cincinnati, advanced to the top ten for the first time. Milos Raonic, who reached the final in Cincinnati last year but was unable to play this year due to injury, has dropped from 24 to 45.
The JFB 52 Week Tennis World Rankings as of 23 Aug 2021
Here’s how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Rankings look after Cincinnati (C):
(c) JFB
Here you can read how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking works.
Cincinnati 2021 Final Highlights
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