This has been a great year for Alexander Zverev and the German deserves credit for getting back to his best so quickly after the horrible ankle injury in 2022. Zverev is one of the favourites to win the ATP Finals this year and rightly so. With Novak Djokovic not participating this year, Zverev will be the most experienced (seventh appearance) and most successful (two titles) player in the draw.
Zverev is not the outright favourite to win the event: Jannik Sinner is. But Zverev arguably has as much chance to win as Sinner or Alcaraz. After some average months since Wimbledon, he has found his peak form again and played some of the best tennis of his career in the Paris Masters final. As a result, Zverev is now the first player to win both the Rome Masters and the Paris Masters in the same season since Novak Djokovic in 2015.
He looks healthy again and loves these quick conditions as his big serve is the most effective on it and he is great at redirecting pace. His return of serve looked much better in Paris too. Sinner will have all the pressure on him in front of his home crowd. Alcaraz still has to find solutions on fast indoor courts and can be vulnerable. Daniil Medvedev has a great record against Zverev but Medvedev hasn’t been at his best and Zverev might not even face him. The best-of-three format also helps the German. The way he played in Paris, especially the last two matches, should have given him a lot of confidence.
Zverev’s forehand is one area that opponents can target, but it was rock solid at the Paris Masters, and he was also aggressive behind that wing, creating a lot of angle on cross-court shots. Zverev’s second serve is also more reliable than ever, which helps him in tight circumstances. Zverev knows and has shown in the past that at his best, he can beat anyone. But it will all come down to how aggressively he plays in tight moments as he tends to become passive in such situations and give control to his opponents. If Zverev wants to lift another title here, he will need to play the matches on his term, and for that, he will have to be bold.
Main photo credit: Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union
