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Alexander Zverev claimed the final Masters 1000 title of the year with a 6-2, 6-2 win over local favorite Ugo Humbert in Paris on Sunday.
It has been an impressive week for the 27-year-old German, as he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals and 2022 champion Holger Röhn in the semi-finals. In the final, he needed just 75 minutes to overcome Humbert, who was playing in the biggest final of his career and had the overwhelming support of the French crowd behind him, to win his seventh Masters 1000 title and second of the season. Zverev did not face a single break point throughout the match and lost only five points on his serve.
After receiving the trophy, Zverev expressed to the crowd how important the title was to him, after suffering a debilitating ankle injury at the 2022 French Open.
“It was not 100 percent certain that I would return to this level after Roland Garros two years ago, when I broke everything possible in my ankle,” Zverev said. “So winning this title here in Paris means a lot to me, and I’m sure it means everything to those in my area, because they have done so much for me.”
It marked Zverev’s 66th match win of 2024 – the most by any man on tour this year – and on Monday he moved past Carlos Alcaraz for the No. 2 ranking, which he will hold entering the ATP Finals at the end of the year.
Here’s what you may have missed from around the tennis world last week:
Schneider’s breakout year ends with another title
It’s hard to put into words how amazing Diana Schneider’s season was.
Entering 2024, the 20-year-old was ranked No. 93 in the world – and was even outside the top 100 in February – and had never won a WTA title. Since then, the Russian-born Schneider, a former North Carolina State standout, has been on a complete tear. She won the Hua Hin Championships in February, the Bad Homburg Open 500m in June, the Hungarian Grand Prix in July, and the Olympic silver medal in doubles with Mira Andreeva in August. She then achieved her best major result with a fourth-round appearance at the US Open in September, and ended her season on Sunday with the title in Hong Kong with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Katie Boulter.
“I’m very happy and very proud of the way I competed this week,” Schneider said after the match. “It’s a dream to finish the season like this with my family by my side.”
Schneider is the third WTA player to win four titles this season, joining Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, the two highest-ranked players in the world. She later said that it was “good to be in that company” and said that it would motivate her even more next season to “push hard to be on the same stage as them”.
But for now, she still has a lot to feel good about entering the holiday period. She is the only woman to have won titles on all three surfaces this season, and is currently at a new career high of number 12, sitting three hundred points outside the top ten.
Turin field group
With just one week left until the start of the regular season, it looked as if four men would be competing for the final three spots at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
Five players – Jannik Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz – had already booked their ticket to Torino, but Novak Djokovic, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev are still trying to secure their place for the year. -End of event. There were several scenarios that would determine who would go and who would be eliminated based on the results of the 250 tournaments in Metz and Belgrade.
Then Djokovic, the defending champion of the ATP Finals Championship, announced on Tuesday morning that he would not be able to participate due to injury. He has participated in only one tournament since the US Open, where he reached the final in Shanghai last month.
“I was really looking forward to being there, but due to an ongoing injury, I will not be playing next week,” the 24-time major champion wrote in an Instagram Story. “I apologize to those who were planning to see me.”
The ATP Finals kick off on November 10, when Ruud, de Minaur and Rublev will officially conclude the singles draw.
First and last (of the year anyway)
Zeynep Sonmez finished the 2024 season by doing something she had never done before: winning the WTA title.
The 22-year-old Turkish player defeated American Ann Lee 6-2, 6-1 in the Merida Open final on Sunday and made history for herself and her country as she became the second Turkish player to win the WTA Cup. The first in eight years.
If that wasn’t notable enough, Sonmez did it after playing two games on Sunday. Due to a rain delay, she played her semi-final match against Alina Korneeva early in the day, and was forced to fight back from down 4-2 in the first set to win 7-6 (5), 6-2. But on Sunday night, she needed no such comeback and took control from the start. After winning the final six games of the match, she became champion after only 70 minutes of play, falling to the ground with her head in her hands in apparent disbelief when the match ended.
“It was one of my biggest dreams (to win the WTA title) and I have been working towards this day for 15 years,” Sonmez said after the match.
Currently ranked No. 91, Sonmez is now in the top 100 for the first time in her career and is the second Turkish woman to reach this milestone.
It’s not how you start…
While Sneijder and Sonmez have had great results this season, it has been a largely difficult year for Viktoria Golubic. The 32-year-old has failed to win consecutive matches at tour level since the Australian Open in January and has dropped to 168th in the world rankings.
Not only that, Golubic has not won a WTA title since 2016 when she captured her only title in Lausanne.
But in tennis, sometimes all you need is one good week to change everything, and that’s exactly what happened to Golobek at the Jiangxi Open. Throughout the tournament, she navigated the draw, defeating top seed Marie Bouzkova, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals – and defeating second seed Rebecca Sramkova, 6-3, 7-5, in the final on Sunday. .
Golubic, who is now out of the top 100 and has returned to her position as the number one Swiss player, could not hide her gratitude after the win.
“(It’s) an incredible feeling,” she said. “Perseverance has paid off, and I’m really proud to have been on the tour for so long and to be at this level for so long. I’ve worked hard to be at this level and even if we win or lose, or whether we get titles or not, we still have faith. We “We keep moving forward, we have our goals, it’s a very intense lifestyle, but it won’t last forever as an athlete, so I’m enjoying it as much as I can and hopefully in my final year or years, or however long I play, I can get more highlights.” .
Work hard, play hard
The WTA Finals kicked off on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and before play began, the players had fun with each other and on social media. Perhaps no one was having a better time than Sabalenka.
After some practice, Sabalenka and Swiatek performed TikToks with each other, and Swiatek later joked that it was a “huge achievement” in her life.
“(Sabalenka) convinced me to do it,” Swiatek told the WTA. “Obviously I’m not the type of person who uses TikTok a lot but it was really fun to do something else and I could actually learn from her how to do TikToks right… I’m glad we were able to show the fans that we were on the same page because that’s important too,” she said. We really respect each other, so it was fun.”
But nothing was more enjoyable than the fortuitous moment that Sabalenka had alongside her friend Ons Jabeur, who is still present in Riyadh as an ambassador despite not qualifying for the event. While participating with local children at soccer practice, Sabalenka inadvertently kicked the ball in the direction of a photographer, and hilarity ensued.
Serve on Halloween
Of course, it was Halloween last week and some of your favorite tennis players really embraced the holiday spirit. Andy Murray was a clown, Caroline Wozniacki and her family chose a “101 Dalmatians” theme, Coco Gauff and her brother dazzled in their Deadpool and Wolverine costumes — and even got a shout-out from Ryan Reynolds himself — and Eugenie Bouchard, the unofficial queen of Halloween, went like Cher from “Clueless.” Among many other looks throughout the week.
However, it was a Polish fashion influencer named Julia Kuczynska who really won the holiday. Dressing like – who else? — Swiatek Kuczynska showcases the look and mannerisms of the five-time main character through a video you’ll likely watch multiple times if you haven’t already. Jazda, Julia. Jazda.
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