The question in Shanghai framed 2026 as a season of whiplash. Alcaraz had opened the year by winning the Australian Open, Jannik Sinner then dominated the early Masters 1000 events, and Zverev, long cast as the eternal nearly man, suddenly owned two majors.
Alcaraz was not buying the premise. Speaking to reporters at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in comments reported by Tennis365, the Spaniard said he saw nothing extraordinary in the swing.
“Not at all. I know tennis, it’s, let’s say, a roller coaster … That’s the beauty of tennis, I would say, to have a lot of players, you know, like fighting for the same thing and having the ranking move all around. So, I’m not surprised at all.”
The 23-year-old is back on tour after a wrist injury kept him out from April through August. He defended his Japan Open title on Tuesday, beating Jiri Lehecka in the Tokyo final, and said he arrived in Shanghai feeling “mentally fresh”.
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Zverev’s two majors in a thin field
Zverev’s breakthrough came at Roland Garros in June, where he beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 to claim his first Grand Slam title after years of near-misses. In September he added a second, beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 at Arthur Ashe Stadium to win the US Open.
Both runs played out without one or both of his two biggest rivals in the draw. Alcaraz was absent from Paris and Wimbledon with the wrist problem. Sinner skipped Flushing Meadows with a knee issue, having beaten Zverev in the Wimbledon final earlier in the summer.
The ‘lucky’ narrative in the background
That absence has fed a steady argument that Zverev’s majors arrived in a soft field. Former world No. 4 Greg Rusedski has been the loudest counter-voice, calling the “lucky” framing “absolute crap” on his podcast and insisting that nobody wins a Grand Slam without earning it.
Alcaraz’s answer landed in the same neighborhood without any of the heat. He did not say Zverev was lucky, and he did not say Zverev was unlucky to be questioned either. He simply refused to treat two majors in a season as something that needed explaining.
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Draw lines up a possible meeting
Zverev arrives in Shanghai as the top seed, with the race for year-end No. 1 still live between the German and Alcaraz. The Spaniard is seeded second and sits on the opposite side of the draw, meaning the two can only meet again in the final.
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