ATP rankings: who was the first official world number one?

Alexander Zverev has the opportunity to achieve the world number one ranking for the first time in his career. The German will become the first male player from his country to finish an ATP season as world number one, with official year-end rankings scheduled to be finalized in November.

Mouratoglou defends Zverev's ranking

Patrick Mouratoglou believes that Alexander Zverev fully deserves to become the world number one, even though the French coach considers Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz better tennis players than the German. The former coach of Serena Williams defended the 29-year-old following criticism from some tennis fans, who believe that injuries to his biggest rivals played a big part in his rise to the top of the ATP rankings. Mouratoglou stressed that rankings are not determined only by individual matches against certain opponents. Speaking in a video published on his YouTube channel, Mouratoglou said: "Zverev might not be the best player, but he's the number one in the world and he fully deserves it."

Context on the world number one ranking

In the history of the Open Era, there have only ever been 29 men who have become the world number one. Novak Djokovic has since overtaken both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as he now leads the Grand Slam tally with 24 majors to his name, with the now 39-year-old still competing for more. During the time between Djokovic's first Grand Slam final and facing Federer in the 2014 Wimbledon final, he had won six Grand Slam titles, three ATP Finals tournaments and had been world number one for 101 weeks.

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Sources

• sports.yahoo.com

• tennisworldusa.org