Novak Djokovic beat three Top 10 players in the same week, Alexander Zverev secured the year-end world No. 1 ranking, while Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner moved between injuries and records. The script for 2026 was impossible to predict.
2024 and 2025 had spoiled tennis fans. Everything had revolved around Alcaraz and Sinner, who split the eight Grand Slam titles between them fought it out for world No. 1 without any real opposition throughout that period. Not even Djokovic could challenge the dominance of a duo that ruled the tour.
This year, however, everything changed. Injuries to the Spaniard, who was sidelined for four months, and the Italian, who will not play again in 2026, produced one of the most unpredictable seasons of the past decade, one that will end with Alexander Zverev as the new world No. 1.
Zverev, the new No. 1
Alexander Zverev will finish the year at the top of the rankings regardless of what happens between now and the ATP Finals. Sinner has announced that he will not compete again until 2027 and, with the Italian unable to defend his titles in Vienna, Paris and Turin, the German will become world No. 1 even if he does not play another match.
Zverev has thus become the season’s unexpected leading man. He won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, reached the Wimbledon final and then lifted the US Open trophy in a year without sustained competition.
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The 29-year-old managed to tick off almost every remaining box in his career in 2026, except one: his record against the world’s best remains uncomfortable.
This year, he posted a 2-11 record against top-10 players and also lost all seven matches he played against Alcaraz, Djokovic and Sinner. Those numbers reflect a widespread criticism of the German: that his dominance is entirely down to the absence of the tour’s biggest names.
His brother, former player Mischa Zverev, even came to his defence over the issue: “Why weren’t they there? Because they were injured. Why do they get injured? Because, somehow, they’re not strong enough, or because they’ve pushed themselves too hard, or because they don’t rest when they need to,” the former world No. 25 told Sport1.
Vintage Djokovic in Beijing
October not only brought a new world No. 1, but also the Djokovic of old. Amid a difficult year and a clear dip in his level, the Serb produced a week that turned back the clock: he won the Beijing title by beating three top-10 players in a row.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion had not achieved that feat since winning the 2023 ATP Finals, at the very end of his last season of dominance on tour. What followed were injuries, struggles and a Grand Slam title drought.
Beijing breathed new life into the former world No. 1, who had managed to play just seven tournaments this season because of his persistent physical problems. In China, he beat Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Miñaur to claim his 102nd title and move within one of Roger Federer.
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Jimmy Connors’ 109 trophies still look a tall order, especially because there is no telling how long this vintage version of Djokovic will last. The Serb is now closer to returning to the ATP Finals after opting out of the event for the past two years.
“If I qualify, I would like to go,” he said a few days ago. Now, with the Beijing trophy in hand, that possibility looks much more realistic. He currently sits ninth in the Race and, thanks to Sinner’s withdrawal, that is the final qualifying spot for Turin.
But he is not the only player fighting for that ticket. Fewer than 500 points separate him from Félix Auger-Aliassime, who sits 15th in the Race.
Alcaraz and Sinner, between injuries and records
For Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, it will be difficult to sum up 2026 in a single emotion. Both have achieved some of the biggest milestones of their careers over the past ten months, but they have also suffered the most serious injuries of their careers.
The Spaniard was the first to feel that swing. He began the year by winning the Australian Open and becoming the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam, at just 23 years old.
Unfortunately, the picture quickly changed. In Barcelona, his right wrist gave way and forced him off the tour for 129 days. During those four months, he missed Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Montreal and Cincinnati.
He returned at the US Open and has now won the title in Tokyo, in just his second tournament in more than five months, closing a painful chapter and claiming his 10th ATP 500 title.
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Sinner, by contrast, will have to endure the pain for at least a couple more months.
After his semi-final defeat in Melbourne, he put together one of the most dominant winning runs in Open Era history: he won the Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid in succession.
That run of trophies also made him only the second player in history to win all nine Masters 1000 events on the calendar. Although he then lost in the second round at Roland Garros, he bounced back at Wimbledon, where he claimed his fifth Grand Slam title.
The problem is that Sunday, 12 July will go down as his final match of the season. A right knee injury will keep him off the court until at least 2027.
“We have decided to undergo treatment on my knee, so the 2026 season is officially over for me. I have to think about my career in the long term,” he said on social media on Tuesday.
