Zverev rolls into history: From Paris pain to 500 career wins

Milestones

Zverev rolls into history: From Paris pain to 500 career wins

28-year-old German is fifth — and youngest — active player to reach milestone

Peter Staples/ATP Tour Alexander Zverev owns a 500-212 tour-level record. By Jerome Coombe

Alexander Zverev’s journey hasn’t always gone to plan, but through setback and recovery, he’s carved out a career that speaks just as much to resilience as it does to success — and he now has 500 tour-level wins to show for it.

After lifting a career-best six trophies in 2021, including a second triumph at the Nitto ATP Finals, the German seemed to be nearing the peak of his powers. But in a high-octane Roland Garros semi-final with Rafael Nadal the following spring, Zverev badly rolled his right ankle and was wheeled off court in agony. Surgery followed, and with it came a long, uncertain road back.

Since his return in 2023, however, Zverev has increased his title tally to 24 and reached two more major finals, reasserting himself firmly near the top of the game. On Thursday at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto, he became just the fifth active man to record 500 victories, and the seventh fastest to have reached that milestone this century, by notching a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 victory against Matteo Arnaldi.

"It's a great achievement. There's not a lot of players that reached that milestone," Zverev said post-match. "Of course I still want 500 more hopefully to come, and maybe even more!

"When you start your career, you wish to play on Tour, you wish to have a successful career, win as many matches as possible. I think 500 is definitely a milestone, and I'm happy about that."

The path to this milestone has included some of the sport’s biggest stages and brightest moments. From his early breakthrough at the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals, where he defeated Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in consecutive matches to lift the trophy, to his gold medal triumph at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Zverev has long proven he belongs in elite company.

Fastest ATP Tour players to reach 500 wins in the 21st century

Zverev is just the third German to reach 500 wins in the Open Era, joining the retired Boris Becker (713-214) and Tommy Haas (569-338) in an exclusive national club. In doing so, he has further solidified his status as the standard-bearer of German tennis in the modern era.

The injury setback in 2022 might have derailed a lesser player, but Zverev’s response only deepened the respect he commands on Tour. With his run to the semi-finals in Paris that year, the then-25-year-old had risen to a career-high No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, but he slipped to No. 12 by the end of the year, having not competed since.

After a testing comeback in 2023, which began with a second-round loss at the Australian Open, Zverev began to gradually find his rhythm. He returned to the last four at Roland Garros and won titles in Hamburg and Chengdu before earning his spot at the season finale for a sixth year.

In 2024, Zverev delivered one of the most complete seasons yet, reaching the Roland Garros final for the first time and capturing two ATP Masters 1000 titles, tying him for eighth in the list for the most in the Open Era with seven in total.

Alexander Zverev wins his seventh ATP Masters 1000 trophy in Paris last November. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour

In the championship match in the French capital, Zverev felt the full force of the sport’s new generation, falling in five sets to 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz. Eight months later, at the 2025 Australian Open, Zverev fell short in his third major final — this time to Jannik Sinner, the other half of what is quickly becoming a new-era rivalry at the top of the game.

Though Alcaraz and Sinner have combined to win the past seven Grand Slam titles, Zverev continues to prove he can compete at the highest level. He remains just one of three players to own Lexus ATP Head2Head wins over both of them at major tournaments, a testament to his ability to challenge the very best, no matter the generation.

Reaching the 500-win mark places Zverev in rarefied air alongside Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka as the only active players to achieve that feat. At 28, Zverev is the youngest among them, with his nearest peer in age, Cilic, seven years his senior.

Active ATP Tour players with 500 tour-level wins

From an era framed by the dominance of Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Djokovic, to the new wave of Sinner and Alcaraz, Zverev has carved out space of his own: consistent, competitive, and continually evolving. With 24 tour-level titles, three Grand Slam finals, Olympic gold, and now 500 match wins, his career reflects a level of excellence sustained across years at the top of the game.

And still, there is plenty more to come.

Click here to read article