Alexander Zverev’s reign as World No. 1 got off to the worst possible start as Lorenzo Musetti needed 100 minutes to dispatch him at the Rolex Paris Masters. The German lost 7-6(5), 6-2 in the second round of the Masters 1000 event on Wednesday.
In a pulsating start, both men saved break points midway through the opener, and neither found a way through on return until the tiebreak, where Zverev led 5-2, two points from the set. Musetti refused to back down and reeled off five straight, sealing it with a serve out wide to the backhand.
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The World No. 24 Italian broke for 2-1 in the second set and raced to 5-2, taking the second break with a backhand passing shot before serving out to love. Musetti hit 29 winners to Zverev’s 25 and committed 12 unforced errors to the German’s 21, a gap that widened to 10-2 in the second set. His backhand slice wreaked havoc, taking pace off the ball and denying the top seed the clean strike he specializes in.
“To put it simply, he played really well and I played really badly. It was perhaps one of my worst matches in the last few months. I feel like I’m the only world No. 1 in the history of tennis who has to explain why it’s OK for me to be world No. 1. I believe I deserve to be where I am, even though I lost today,” Alexander Zverev said after the match.
The fallout to Alexander Zverev‘s exit was swift and merciless. The two-time Grand Slam champion found himself at the center of the firestorm after fans pulled no punches while shredding the German’s credentials.
“Getting outplayed by Musetti on a fast indoor court (even if the matchup is annoying and the draw is sh**) is super embarrassing when you’re number 1,” a user wrote on X.
“The worst No. 1 in the history of tennis,” a user remarked.
“Alexander Zverev has gone from the best player to have ever been number 1 to the worst player to have been it,” a user stated.
“He’s just been proving why he doesn’t deserve it. It’s bad for the sport,” a user noted.
“Zverev never knows when to pull out of any tournament, embarrassing Asian Swing for him. But he has no one to blame but himself. Has played every week since the US Open final, Davis Cup, Laver Cup, Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, and now in Paris. This is on his idiocy to schedule like this and not pull out of any tournament to get rest, and after Turin he plays Davis Cup again. That ankle is blowing up at this rate,” a user explained on Reddit.
Alexander Zverev virtually holds the lowest win percentage of a year-end ATP world No.1 this century
The match ledger presents the sharpest statistical indictment: at 65-18 (78.3%), Alexander Zverev is teetering on an unwanted historical watermark, trailing Andy Roddick’s 2003 mark (79.1%) as the century’s lowest winning clip for a year-end No. 1.
Zverev is 3-9 against top-10 players this season and beat only one of them, Ben Shelton, between his Roland Garros and US Open titles, per Gazzetta. Jannik Sinner’s season ended early with a knee injury, and Carlos Alcaraz missed long stretches of 2026.
Turin is next, where the ATP Finals run from November 15 to 22, then the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna, where Germany plays Great Britain on November 26. Alexander Zverev is set to finish the year at No. 1 regardless. The win rate, and the argument attached to it, can still move.
Edited by Pritha Ghosh
