Alexander Zverev wins in Paris, and the ATP Finals spots are locked in
Alexander Zverev claimed the final Masters 1000-level title of the year with a 6-2, 6-2 rout over local favorite Ugo Humbert in Paris on Sunday.
It had been an impressive week for the 27-year-old German, who defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals and 2022 tournament champion Holger Rune in the semifinals. In the final, he needed just 75 minutes to get past Humbert, who was playing in the biggest final of his career and had the overwhelming support of the French crowd behind him, and win his seventh Masters 1000 trophy and second of the season. Zverev didn’t face a break point throughout the match and lost just five points on serve.
After receiving the trophy, Zverev expressed to the crowd how much the title meant to him, after sustaining a debilitating ankle injury at the 2022 French Open.
“It was not 100 percent guaranteed that I would be back at this level after Roland Garros two years ago, when I basically broke everything possible in my ankle,” Zverev said. “So to win this title here in Paris means the world to me, and I’m sure it means everything to those in my box, because they have done so much for me.”
It marked Zverev’s 66th match victory of 2024 — the most by any man on tour this year — and on Monday he surpassed Carlos Alcaraz for the No. 2 ranking, which he will hold entering the year-end ATP Finals.
Here’s what else you might have missed from around the tennis world last week:
Shnaider’s breakthrough year ends with another title
It’s hard to put into words just how unbelievable Diana Shnaider’s season has been.
Entering 2024, the now-20-year-old was ranked No. 93 in the world — and was even outside of the top 100 in February — and had never won a WTA title. Since then, the Russian-born Shnaider, a former standout at North Carolina State, has been on an absolute tear. She won the Hua Hin Championships in February, the 500-level Bad Homburg Open in June, the Hungarian Grand Prix in July and the Olympic silver medal in doubles with Mirra Andreeva in August. Then, she had her best major result with a fourth-round appearance at the US Open in September and ended her season on Sunday with the title in Hong Kong after a statement-making 6-1, 6-2 victory over Katie Boulter.
“I’m so happy, so proud, the way I competed this week,” Shnaider said after the match. “It’s a dream to finish the season like this with my family by my side.”
Shnaider is just the third WTA player to win four titles this season, joining Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek — the top two-ranked players in the world. She later said it was “nice to be in that company” and said it would motivate her further next season to “push harder to be on the same stage as them.”
But for now, she still has quite a bit to feel good about entering the offseason. She is the only woman to have won titles on all three surfaces this season, is currently ranked a new career-high of No. 12, and is within three hundred points of the top 10.
Turin field set
With just one week remaining in the regular season, it looked as if four men would be battling for the final three spots in the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
Five players — Jannik Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Taylor Fritz — had already punched their ticket to Turin, but Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev were still trying to secure their place for the year-end event. There were several scenarios that would determine who would go and would be left out based on results at 250-tournaments in Metz and Belgrade.
Then Djokovic, the defending ATP Finals champion, announced on Tuesday morning that he would be unable to participate due to injury. He has played in just one tournament since the US Open, reaching the final in Shanghai last month.
“I was really looking forward to being there, but due to ongoing injury I won’t be playing next week,” the 24-time major champion wrote in an Instagram story. “Apologies to those who were planning to see me.”
The ATP Finals gets underway on Nov. 10 with Ruud, de Minaur and Rublev all officially rounding out the singles draw.
First and last (of the year anyway)
Zeynep Sonmez finished her 2024 season by doing something she had never done before: winning a WTA title.
The 22-year-old from Turkey defeated American Ann Li 6-2, 6-1, in the final of the Merida Open on Sunday and made history for herself and her country as she became just the second Turkish player to win a WTA trophy, and the first in eight years.
If that wasn’t notable enough, Sonmez did it after playing two matches on Sunday. Due to rain delays, she played her semifinal match against Alina Korneeva early in the day, and had to fight back after trailing 4-2 in the opening set for a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory. But on Sunday night, she needed no such comeback and took control from the start. Winning the final six games of the match, she was the champion after just 70 minutes of play — and fell to the ground with her head in her hands in apparent disbelief when it was over.
“It was one of my biggest dreams [to win a WTA title] and I’ve been working for this day for 15 years,” Sonmez said after the match.
Currently ranked No. 91, Sonmez is now into the top 100 for the first time in her career and is just the second Turkish woman to reach the milestone.
It’s not how you start …
While Shnaider and Sonmez have had breakthrough results this season, it’s been a largely difficult year for Viktorija Golubic. The 32-year-old had failed to win back-to-back tour-level matches since the Australian Open in January and had dropped all the way to No. 168 in the rankings.
And not only that, Golubic hadn’t won a WTA title since 2016 when she took home her lone trophy in Lausanne.
But in tennis, sometimes all you need is one good week to turn everything around, and that’s exactly what happened to Golubic at the Jiangxi Open. Throughout the tournament, she rolled through the draw — upsetting the top-seeded Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals — and defeated No. 2 seed Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 7-5, in Sunday’s final.
Golubic, who is now just outside the top 100 and returned to her position as the No. 1 Swiss player, couldn’t hide her gratitude after the victory.
“[It] feels incredible,” she said. “Persistence has paid off, and I’m really proud I’ve stayed on tour for that long and to be at that level for that long. I’ve worked hard to be at this level and even if we win or lose, or get titles or not, we still have the belief. We keep on going, we have our goals. It’s a very intense lifestyle, but it’s not going to be forever to be an athlete. So I’m enjoying it as much as I can, and I hope in my last year, or years, or however long I will play, I will get more highlights.”
Work hard, play hard
The WTA Finals got underway on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and before play started, the players had some fun with one another and on social media. Perhaps no one had a better time than Sabalenka.
After some practice, Sabalenka and Swiatek did a TikTok with one another — and Swiatek later joked it was a “big accomplishment” in her life.
“[Sabalenka] convinced me to do it,” Swiatek told the WTA. “Obviously, I’m not the kind of person who goes on TikTok a lot but it was really fun doing something else and I can learn from her actually how to do proper TikToks … I’m happy that we could show to fans that we were getting along because that is also important. We really respect each other so it was fun.”
But nothing was more entertaining than an accidental moment Sabalenka had alongside pal Ons Jabeur, who is still on hand in Riyadh as an ambassador despite not qualifying for the event. While participating with local kids in a soccer drill, Sabalenka inadvertently kicked the ball directly at a photographer and, well, hilarity ensued.
Serving on Halloween
Halloween was of course last week and some of your tennis faves truly embraced the holiday spirit. Andy Murray was a clown, Caroline Wozniacki and her family went with a “101 Dalmatians” theme, Coco Gauff and her brother rocked Deadpool and Wolverine costumes — and even got a shoutout from Ryan Reynolds himself — and Eugenie Bouchard, the unofficial queen of Halloween, went as Cher from “Clueless,” among several other looks throughout the week.
However, it was a Polish fashion influencer named Julia Kuczynska who really won the holiday. Dressing as — who else? — Swiatek, Kuczynska nailed the five-time major champion’s look and mannerisms with a video that you will likely watch several times if you haven’t already. Jazda, Julia. Jazda.
