Alexander Zverev will not be happy about becoming part of this group following his recent defeat.
Zverev is bidding to end the year as world number one, as he tracks down the currently injured Jannik Sinner.
The German’s hopes of becoming world number one took a hit in Beijing, where Zverev was beaten by Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
Not only does this mean Zverev is out of the China Open, but the world number two has also set an unwanted tennis record.
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Alexander Zverev joins Stefan Edberg on unwanted list after losing to Novak Djokovic
Zverev’s defeat to Djokovic, who is currently the world number 11, is his 10th defeat of the 2026 season against a top 20 player. Last year, Zverev lost 15 matches against top 20 players and he has now joined Stefan Edberg as part of an unwanted record.
Having gone back-to-back years suffering at least 10 losses against top 20 players, Zverev joins Edberg as the only two top five players on the ATP Tour this has ever happened to. According to OptaAce, Edberg went back-to-back years losing at least 10 matches against top 20 players in 1993 and 1994.
Zverev has played against 19 different top 20 players over the past two years, but some have caused him more trouble than others.
The standout is current world number one Sinner, who has won all nine matches he has played against Zverev in 2025 and 2026. Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Minaur have also won multiple matches against Zverev in these last two years.
While Zverev has not had the best record against top 20 players in the last two years, he has had little problem against Ben Shelton, against whom he has won all five matches in 2025 and 2026, including most recently in the US Open final.
| Top 20 players Alexander Zverev has faced in 2025 and/or 2026 | Head-to-head in 2025 and 2026 when they were top 20 players |
| Ugo Humbert | 1-0 Zverev |
| Tommy Paul | 1-0 Zverev |
| Novak Djokovic | 2-1 Djokovic |
| Jannik Sinner | 9-0 Sinner |
| Arthur Fils | 1-1 |
| Ben Shelton | 5-0 Zverev |
| Lorenzo Musetti | 1-1 |
| Taylor Fritz | 3-1 Fritz |
| Daniil Medvedev | 2-1 Medvedev |
| Karen Khachanov | 1-1 |
| Carlos Alcaraz | 2-0 Alcaraz |
| Alex de Minaur | 2-0 De Minaur |
| Alejandro Davidovich Fokina | 1-0 Zverev |
| Felix Auger-Aliassime | 1-0 Auger-Aliassime |
| Francisco Cerundolo | 2-0 Zverev |
| Flavio Cobolli | 2-1 Zverev |
| Luciano Darderi | 1-0 Darderi |
| Jiri Lehecka | 1-0 Zverev |
| Learner Tien | 1-0 Zverev |
Mark Petchey defends Alexander Zverev after his China Open exit
Although Zverev has lost 10 matches against top 20 players this year, former British number one Mark Petchey, who has previously coached Emma Raducanu, has called this statistic ‘misleading’.
In response to the statistic, Petchey pointed out that Zverev actually has a strong record against players ranked between 11 and 20, but it is top 10 players he has struggled with.
Petchey wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Edberg had a genuine losing season vs Top 20 in ‘94. He was 2-6 W/L against players 11-20, but he had a winning record in ‘93 vs 11-20 ranked players and so has Zverev these past two seasons 8-4 and 6-2 respectively.
“I think the stat is misleading. Edberg, just because you used him as the example, had a 5 year stretch of having a losing record to Top Tenners ‘91 – ‘95. It’s just not as easy as others have seemed to make it recently.”
Despite winning two Grand Slams this year, Zverev has really struggled against top 10 players, having only won two of his 10 matches against them. Zverev will be hoping to improve this record at his next tournament, which is the Shanghai Masters.
