Alexander Zverev hit another milestone in his standout season on Sunday, when he edged Quentin Halys at the Rolex Shanghai Masters to notch his 60th tour-level victory of 2026.
The top-seeded Zverev prevailed 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-3 in the third-round clash, moving past an opponent that pushed him to five sets during his recent US Open title run. The No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Rankings claimed an early break of serve in each of the first and third sets, either side of letting slip two match points in the second-set tie-break. It is the third time that Zverev has won 60 matches in a single season, after 2018 (when he finished with 60) and 2024 (69).
“I feel like this year I’ve been picking my places where I want to peak, and I feel like I did that quite well,” Zverev, who lifted major trophies at Roland Garros and the US Open this season, said. “I didn’t do that in the early stages of my career. I wanted to play well every single tournament and I feel like this year I’ve been working through a lot of tournaments.
“I’ve had maybe some losses I shouldn’t have had, but it paid off because I won two Grand Slams and peaked at the right moments and made another final at Wimbledon. So I’m happy with that, but I think that 60 wins doesn’t tell the whole story.”
Despite the close scoreline against Halys, Zverev did not face a break point in his two-hour, 17-minute triumph inside Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He now leads Halys 4-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with all four clashes coming in 2026, although none of those victories have been straightforward: Zverev won two tie-breaks to down Halys in Miami in March, while the Frenchman took his higher-ranked opponent to four sets at Roland Garros before their five-set duel at the US Open.
“He plays unbelievably aggressive and he serves incredible,” Zverev said of Halys. “I think for his height, he’s probably the best server in men’s tennis right now… He can change up his ball toss so much but he can still hit every single spot, so you never know what do and you can’t really guess the serve, you can’t really read it.
“That’s what makes it difficult. His first forehand after the serve is [also] unbelievable, so credit to him. He’s been playing amazing tennis, rising up the rankings this year, so I hope to see him as a seed in the next years, because I don’t want to play him first or second round anymore.”
The current World No. 2, Zverev is on the charge towards leapfrogging Jannik Sinner (who has ended his 2026 season early due to a knee injury) and becoming the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time. Although the German cannot reach top spot until 2 November at the earliest, he can seal ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF honours by reaching the semi-finals in Shanghai.
An eight-time ATP Masters 1000 champion, the 29-year-old Zverev is chasing his first title in Shanghai, where his best result is a championship-match appearance in 2019. The next task for Zverev in Shanghai will be a fourth-round clash against 19th seed Alexander Bublik, who rallied to a 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-6(5) triumph over 16th seed Brandon Nakashima.
Bublik let slip two set points from 6/4 in the opening set of his first tour-level meeting with Nakashima, but fired 16 aces across the second and third sets to clinch a thrilling two-hour, 27-minute victory.
