{"id":3706,"date":"2026-10-29T20:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/germanys-zverev-becomes-tennis-world-no-1\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:01:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:01:27","slug":"germanys-zverev-becomes-tennis-world-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/germanys-zverev-becomes-tennis-world-no-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Zverev becomes tennis world No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Germany\u2019s<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev accelerated his ascension to number one in the world rankings for the first time in his career on Thursday as he beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 7-5\u00a0to\u00a0reach the quarter-finals of the Vienna Open.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old German was already assured of finishing the season top of the ATP rankings but, in the absence of current incumbent Jannik Sinner, two-time Grand Slam champion Zverev will now take that crown in next week\u2019s updated standings after winning his opening two matches in the Austrian capital.<\/p>\n

Long seen as tennis\u2019 nearly-man, Zverev has enjoyed a stellar 2026, breaking his major duck by picking up the titles at the French and US Opens.<\/p>\n

Now he has broken further ground by becoming only the 30th man to claim top spot since the rankings were first published in 1973.<\/p>\n

He will be aged 29 years and 196 days when Monday\u2019s new rankings are published, making him the second-oldest first-time number one after Australian John Newcombe.<\/p>\n

Due to a knee injury Italy\u2019s Sinner decided to end his season at the start of October, opening the way for Zverev to dethrone him.<\/p>\n

And the big-serving Hamburg native ensured he\u00a0did just that ahead of the season-ending ATP Finals next month by seeing off Martin Landaluce and Griekspoor in his opening two matches in Vienna.<\/p>\n

Zverev needed to save four match points against Spain\u2019s Landaluce in his first-round match on Tuesday, but was much more comfortable as he defeated Griekspoor in straight sets to write his name into the history books.<\/p>\n

He raced out of the blocks on Thursday, breaking the 30-year-old Dutchman in the very first game and then confidently serving his way into a one-set lead.<\/p>\n

The second frame went to 5-5 before Zverev pounced on Griekspoor\u2019s serve to get his nose in front.<\/p>\n

The match met an unexpected stoppage as Zverev brought up match point when a smash off the German\u2019s racquet caused part of the electronic board behind Griekspoor to malfunction.<\/p>\n

But once the umpire covered the problematic panel up with a towel, Zverev then sealed his new ranking with an unreturnable serve.<\/p>\n

The post Germany\u2019s Zverev becomes tennis world No. 1<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Zverev accelerated his ascension to number one in the world rankings for the first time in his career on Thursday as he beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 7-5\u00a0to\u00a0reach the quarter-finals… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}