Zverev is projected by some analysts to hold the men's tennis top ranking when the 2026 season draws to a close. With Zverev's Race points tally now sitting above the 7,950 figure where Sinner's total has stalled, no other player can reach year-end No. 1 through arithmetic alone.

On Tuesday, Sinner announced that a knee injury keeping him out of competition since his Wimbledon title in July would bring his 2024 campaign to a close. The absences will stretch across Shanghai, the European indoor swing, and the ATP Finals, cutting short a campaign in which he had spent considerable stretches playing at the top of his form.

Sinner moved back to the top of the rankings after a strong performance. Throughout much of the spring he put together a string of strong performances, and a victory over Zverev in the Wimbledon final brought him a fifth Grand Slam title. The incident took place on the twelfth of July. Since that match, his schedule has gone unplayed — the North American hard-court season, the US Open, the Asian swing, and now the Turin event have all passed without his participation.

Alcaraz's year followed a trajectory that ran roughly opposite in direction. A Career Grand Slam title came his way at the Australian Open, setting the tone for the rest of that year. A hand injury sidelined one of the sport's two foremost players during the heart of the season. Entries at Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Queen's, and Wimbledon all came off Alcaraz's schedule before play began. Nearly five months without a completed run of regular match play had elapsed before he made his full return for the American hard-court swing.

Muscle damage to the rectus femoris, picked up during competition in Rome, ruled Musetti out of both Roland Garros and Wimbledon across that stretch of the calendar.

After climbing to fourth in the world rankings during 2025, Draper found his 2026 campaign repeatedly interrupted by physical setbacks. An arm problem that had already forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon and miss large portions of the clay-court season returned again in the build-up to Washington.

A tear to Rune's Achilles tendon, sustained during a tournament in Stockholm the previous October, kept him away from competition for 335 days — a stretch that erased much of his time near the top of the world rankings. A wait stretching to September meant the Davis Cup marked his first taste of competitive play that year.

A place in the Australian Open final was among Djokovic's results on the year, yet defeats mounted across the calendar — falling to Draper at Indian Wells, to Dino Prizmic in Rome, to Joao Fonseca at Roland Garros, to Sinner at Wimbledon, to Thiago Agustin Tirante in Cincinnati, and to Mariano Navone in the opening round at the US Open. At 39 years old and holding the No. 11 ranking, he touched down in Beijing and took the match against Zverev, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

At Roland Garros, a five-set contest against Flavio Cobolli yielded Zverev his first Grand Slam title of the run, and a second followed at the US Open, where Ben Shelton was turned back by a 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 6-2 scoreline. A Wimbledon final appearance and a run to the Australian Open semifinals were also part of his record.

His record against top-ten ranked opponents during the 2026 season stood at two wins and eight losses heading into the Beijing tournament. Across the entire season, his two Grand Slam titles and a year-end No. 1 ranking came despite victories over only a pair of top-10 opponents — Fritz at Wimbledon and Shelton in the US Open final. None of the opponents Zverev faced on his way to the final held a top-20 seeding.