Zverev's debut as No. 1 ends in Paris: Musetti wins

Alexander Zverev's debut as world number 1 ended in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters. On Wednesday 4 November Lorenzo Musetti won 7-6(5) 6-2 and ended the German's first match at the top of the ATP ranking, at the last Masters 1000 of the season.

Zverev is still number 1, though. The site's player page, with the live ranking, gives him 9,560 points, 10 of them earned in Paris, against Jannik Sinner's 9,450. The lead is 110 points. Carlos Alcaraz is third with 6,300, 3,260 behind the German: for now, the race at the top involves just two players.

The match was a long balance broken at the right moments. The first set was decided in a tie-break, which Musetti won 7-5. In the second the Italian pulled away and closed it 6-2. According to Reuters, Musetti did not drop a single service game and his sliced backhand was the weapon that took the rhythm away from Zverev, who finished with 21 unforced errors against his opponent's 12.

After the defeat Zverev judged his own performance poor, as the Associated Press reports, and the German press describes him as irritated. It happens: his first day as the leader ended with a note in the register, and at that point the only thing to do is turn the page.

With this win Musetti moves ahead in the head-to-head: 3-2, according to the site's head-to-head page. The first meeting dates back to Madrid 2022, in the round of 16, and Zverev won it 6-3 1-0 when his opponent retired. At Vienna 2024, in the quarter-finals, Musetti won 2-6 7-6(5) 6-4. At Rome 2025, again in the quarter-finals, he won 7-6(1) 6-4. At Vienna 2025, in the semi-final, Zverev took his revenge 6-4 7-5. The latest chapter is the one in Paris.

The tournament has a special history for the German. In 2024 Zverev won the title here, beating Ugo Humbert 6-2 6-2 in the final. In 2025 he stopped in the semi-final, and the site's player page sets the 400 points of that result against this year's 10. The recent list of champions tells the rest too: in 2025 Sinner won against Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-4 7-6(4); in 2023 Novak Djokovic against Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4 6-3; in 2022 Holger Rune against Djokovic, 3-6 6-3 7-5; in 2021 Djokovic again against Daniil Medvedev, 4-6 6-3 6-3.

In terms of points, Paris matters a lot. The title is worth 1,000 points, the final 650, the semi-final 400, the quarter-finals 200, the round of 16 100. Sinner's 1,000 points from the 2025 title expire with this edition, as do the 400 from Zverev's semi-final last year: these are the numbers that keep the debate about the top spot alive.

Musetti, meanwhile, made the match with Zverev the central stage of his tournament. In the first round he had beaten Hubert Hurkacz 7-6(3) 7-6(10), two tie-breaks in one evening. After Zverev he played the round of 16 against Luca Van Assche and lost 7-5 3-6 6-4. The Frenchman then went all the way to the semi-finals.

His tournament is worth 100 points, which take Musetti to 2,060 and to number 24 in the ranking. Compared with 10 August 2026 he has lost 11 places: his best ranking, number 13, dates from 3 August. Still, 2026 has had its moments: in Lyon he won the ATP 250 title, beating Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-4 in the final after coming back against Flavio Cobolli in the semi-final, 4-6 6-2 7-5. In his last ten matches his record is eight wins and two losses.

For Zverev the 2026 season remains at a very high level. At the U.S. Open he won the title, which gave him 2,000 points. At Wimbledon he lost the final to Sinner, 6-7(7) 7-6(2) 6-3 6-4, a result worth 1,300 points. This autumn, in Shanghai, he stopped in the semi-final against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 5-7 6-4 6-3, after beating Yibing Wu, Quentin Halys, Alexander Bublik and Alex De Minaur. In Beijing he went out in the quarter-finals, in Vienna in the semi-final against De Minaur, 6-4 1-6 7-6(4).

The German had started Vienna with a 34-game battle against Martin Landaluce, won 7-5 3-6 7-6(11), and then swept past Arthur Fery 6-0 6-2 in the quarter-finals. In his last thirty matches he has won 24 and lost six; in the last ten the count is seven wins and three losses. His record at the major tournaments in 2025 is 51 wins, 21 losses and one title: numbers that explain why one misstep is not enough to change the verdict.

Sinner, on the other side, has 9,450 points and is number 2. His last match recorded by the site is the Wimbledon final won against Zverev himself, and in his last thirty he has won 28 and lost two. His head-to-head record against the German, on his player page, is 6-3 for the Italian. The gap to number 1 is small in absolute terms, but the live ranking updates the sums at every round.

The rest of the tournament, meanwhile, went on without the two big names who left early. In the same second round Rinky Hijikata eliminated Djokovic 2-6 6-3 6-3, and Daniil Medvedev lost to Ignacio Buse 6-4 6-4. In Paris there are 56 players from 23 nations in the draw, with France leading with ten representatives. So far 51 matches have been played, with 30 tie-breaks and two retirements.

The picture for Saturday 7 November is clear. At 14:30 Luca Van Assche plays Ben Shelton in the semi-final; at 17:00 it is the turn of Casper Ruud against Alcaraz. In the quarter-finals Shelton had beaten Tommy Paul 6-4 4-6 6-3, Van Assche had got past Hijikata 6-4 6-7(4) 7-5, Alcaraz had come back against Fritz 6-7(10) 7-5 6-3 and Ruud had stopped Nuno Borges 7-6(5) 6-4.

What happens now to Zverev? The player page shows no next round, because his tournament is over. For the German the calendar says only that the ranking will be updated with the Paris results, and that his 110-point margin over Sinner is the number to watch from here on.

The defeat against Musetti does not erase the work of a season with a Slam title, a Wimbledon final and the semi-finals in Shanghai and Vienna. It is, however, a reminder: being at the top is one thing, staying there is another, and the tour gives no discounts even to someone who has just reached number 1. Musetti, meanwhile, takes a win that matters and a rivalry that now stands at 3-2 in his favour.