page_title: Alexander Zverev
section_title: 2016: First ATP title, Federer upset, top 20
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Zverev / Professional career / 2016: First ATP title, Federer upset, top 20
caption_attribution_description: Zverev A. US16 (26)
context_page_description: Alexander "Sascha" Zverev is a German professional tennis player. He is the second-youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals, and was a permanent fixture in the top 5 throughout 2018. Zverev was the champion at the 2018 ATP Finals, which had made him the youngest winner at the year-end championship in a decade. He is the only active player outside of the Big Four with three ATP Masters 1000 titles. Zverev has been praised by members of the Big Four as one of their potential successors. Rafael Nadal has called him a "clear possible future No. 1," while Novak Djokovic has said, "Hopefully, he can surpass me." Zverev has won 11 ATP titles in singles and two in doubles.
  Zverev was born into a tennis family. His parents Irina and Alexander Sr. both played professionally for the Soviet Union, and his older brother Mischa is also a professional who has been ranked as high as No. 25 in the world. Zverev is a former world No. 1 junior, and won a junior Grand Slam singles title at the 2014 Australian Open. He had an early breakthrough on the professional tour as well, becoming one of the youngest Challenger title winners in history at the age of 17.
context_section_description: Zverev's first ATP event of the year was the Australian Open, where he had a difficult draw against world No. 2 Andy Murray and was only able to win six games in his opening match. He bounced back at the Open Sud de France, reaching the semifinals in the singles event and his second career final with his brother in the doubles event. During the singles event, he upset No. 13 Marin Čilić, the highest ranked player he had defeated in an official match at the time. Zverev then produced a strong result at the Indian Wells Masters, where he defeated two top 30 players. In the fourth round, he nearly upset No. 5 Rafael Nadal. Zverev had a match point while he was serving for the final set, but missed a routine forehand volley and then proceeded to lose 14 of the remaining 15 points in the match. He commented on the match point that, "I missed probably the easiest shot I had the whole match." Back in Europe, Zverev was able to recover as he reached his first ATP singles final at the Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, finishing runner-up to No. 15 Dominic Thiem, the top seed and the defending champion. Thiem would also defeat him in the third round of the French Open.
  Zverev's next breakthrough came during the grass court season at the Halle Open, where he upset world No. 3 Roger Federer in the semifinals, ending Federer's streak of ten consecutive appearances in the final while competing at the tournament. He was also the first teenager to defeat Federer since Murray nearly a decade earlier. Nonetheless, he finished runner-up at the event to veteran compatriot Florian Mayer. After this final, he entered the top 30 for the first time and stayed ranked in the 20s for the rest of the season. Despite being seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, Zverev could then only match his best Grand Slam singles result at Wimbledon, again falling to Berdych. During the US Open Series, he reached the semifinals of the Washington Open, but lost his opening round matches at both Masters events. He was then upset in the second round of the US Open by Dan Evans.
  After the US Open, Zverev returned to Europe and won his first career ATP title at the St. Petersburg Open. He recorded his first win over No. 9 Berdych in the semifinals and defeated No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the final, coming back from 0–3 down in the third set. At his next event, he then defeated No. 10 Thiem in the first round of the 2016 China Open for the first time in four tries this year. In doing so, he became the first teenager to record three consecutive victories against top ten opponents since Boris Becker in 1986. Zverev's third round appearance at the Shanghai Masters then helped him rise to No. 20 in the ATP rankings, making him the youngest player to debut in the top 20 since Novak Djokovic in 2006.
caption: Zverev at the 2016 US Open
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