Mumbai: Maybe it was still a bit of jetlag, as Alexander Zverev had joked earlier about all those late-night finishes from the first week.
The German top seed defeated 8th seed Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday, ensuring the American wait for a first male major winner since Andy Roddick in 2003 only got longer. For the 29-year-old French Open and now US Open champion, that capped off a commanding Slam season. Zverev is the only second man from Germany after Boris Becker (1989) to win two singles Slam titles in the same season in the Open era. His 25 match wins in Slams this year, with a final at Wimbledon and semi-final at Australian Open, are the most by a German male in history. His two triumphs in the last three Slams offset four final near-misses, including the first at the 2020 US Open. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the two major bosses of 2025, took turns to stay away or leave prematurely. In Paris, Zverev did not play a top 10 seed until the final. In New York, Zverev did not face a top 20 player until the final. The lanky German won more than 90% points on his first strike, even though his second serve was susceptible. Shelton’s forehands, however, let him down frequently; like in the seventh game of the second set, where he got Zverev to 30-30 and deuce only for his forehand to close that small window.
Zverev didn’t know he had won. In Paris, Alcaraz was injured and Sinner lost in the second round. In New York, Sinner was injured and Alcaraz lost in the quarters.
“We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title, and now we won two within three months,” Zverev told his team on court. When it belatedly dawned upon him, a good few seconds after the championship point was done even as he zoned in towards his return position, he spread his arms out and laughed. Zverev had also laughed in the first week at how bad — in his own words — he had been playing. “God has seen how hard we worked, how much we suffered, how much pain we went through. Until this season, the stars aligned.
You play the cards you’re dealt, but does the world No.2 and the most consistent Slam face of 2026 believe he’s the best player in the world at the moment?
“With Sinner injured and Alcaraz coming back after four months, right now, probably yes,” Zverev told the media. “Both of them healthy, and both of them at the top of their game? Maybe not.”
