Alexander Zverev is closing 2026 with the two Grand Slam trophies that escaped him for a decade. Roland Garros came in June, the US Open in September. For a player who lost his first three major finals, this season rewrites his career.
Zverev went 25-2 in major matches this year, according to the Associated Press. He reached the Wimbledon final too. In New York he earned $5.5 million, matching the largest payout in Grand Slam history. The women’s champion, Elena Rybakina, took home the same figure a day earlier.
What changed was not his ceiling. It was his nerve. For years Zverev lost matches he controlled, most painfully the 2020 US Open final. This season he stopped leaking those leads and held firm in the closing sets.
His Grand Slam season breaks down like this.
| Grand Slam | Zverev’s finish | Sinner | Alcaraz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roland Garros | Champion, beat Cobolli | Out in round two | Withdrew, injured |
| Wimbledon | Runner-up, lost to Sinner | Champion | Absent |
| US Open | Champion, beat Shelton | Withdrew, knee injury | Lost in the quarterfinals |
Both titles came without the top two in the way
The pattern is hard to miss. Zverev won two majors, and in neither run did he meet Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz.
- Paris opened early. Alcaraz withdrew from Roland Garros with an injury, according to the ATP Tour. Top seed Sinner then lost in the second round to Juan Manuel Cerundolo. Teenager Joao Fonseca knocked out Novak Djokovic in the third round. The draw had cracked open, yet Zverev still had to finish it. He dropped only two sets on the way to the final, per the ATP Tour. Then he beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 across four hours. Cobolli faced 21 break points in that final and still climbed into the top 10 afterward, per the ATP Tour.
- The one healthy test went the other way. At Wimbledon, a fit Sinner beat Zverev in the final. The score was 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4, Sinner’s 10th straight win over the German. Sinner struck 58 winners against 25 errors and faced a single break point, reports noted. Zverev had not broken him in 86 consecutive service games. Sinner had also crushed him in the Madrid final in May, 6-1, 6-2.
- New York opened again. Sinner withdrew with a knee injury, which handed Zverev the No. 1 seeding. Ben Shelton then removed Alcaraz in a quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m. The Associated Press called it the latest finish in US Open history. Shelton was chasing the first US Open title by an American man since Andy Roddick in 2003. Zverev beat him in four sets and never faced a top-two seed. Shelton also chased history for Black players, none of whom had won the men’s title since Arthur Ashe in 1968. He fell to 0-6 against Zverev. Afterward Shelton called the German maybe the best player in the world this year, per the AP.
Redemption years in the making
The wins landed because of everything that came before. Zverev lost the 2020 US Open final to Dominic Thiem after leading by two sets. He became the first man to lose a major final from two sets up since 1949, per the AP. He fell again at the 2024 Roland Garros final, then the 2025 Australian Open final. This time he closed both finals out. “I think God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered,” Zverev said of his team.
The US Open win did not even register at first. Zverev thought the score was 5-1 and set up to return before realizing he had won. “In that moment I was in the zone, a lot,” he told reporters. “I didn’t hear noise at all.” The record book moved with him. Zverev is the first German man to win a major since Boris Becker in 1996, according to Olympics.com. He is also the first man to take a maiden Slam at Roland Garros since Rafael Nadal, 21 years earlier. Those milestones do not depend on who was missing.
So where does that leave him? Sinner went 44-3 this year and leads Alcaraz on Big Titles, 17 to 15, per the ATP Tour. Sinner and Alcaraz met in three straight major finals in 2025, per the AP, and Zverev watched that duo from outside. Zverev’s task now is simple to state and hard to do. He must beat Sinner and Alcaraz when they are fit and in front of him, not sitting out. That is the line between a great year and a defining one.
