By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Photo credit: Screen Shot<\/p>\n
Vienna is Alexander Zverev\u2019s gateway to the world No. 1 ranking.<\/p>\n
Today, Zverev was on the brink of a stunning first-round exit.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Zverev re-routed the threat in a thriller.<\/p>\n
Zverev denied four match points in a tense tie break, outdueling Spanish wild card Martin Landaluce 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(11) in a dizzying Vienna duel.<\/p>\n
Twenty year-old Landaluce saved four match points of his own\u2014two when serving at 5-6 in the third set, the third down 6-7 in the tie break and the fourth at 10-11 in the tie break\u2014and was on the verge of his greatest career win.<\/p>\n
Pushed to the very edge, Zverev saved the first match point on a gutsy and massive second serve to level the tie break, 6-all.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Zverev said the world No. 67 played disarming tennis at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, [I was pushed] to the absolute limit. I mean, Martin played a hell of a match,\u201d Zverev said in his on-court interview. \u201cServing unbelievable. The first forehand after the serve was unbelievable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I barely touched the ball, so definitely credit to him. He played an amazing match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I have to improve, for sure. It was not perfect from me, but he pushed me today to the absolute limit, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-time Grand Slam champion Zverev has already secured the season-ending world No. 1 ranking for the first time as the world\u2019s current top-ranked player, Jannik Sinner, has already pulled the plug on his season due to a cranky right knee issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By virtue of this victory, Zverev now stands one win from rising to world No. 1 for the first time on Monday. <\/p>\n
If Zverev beats either Tallon Griekspoor or Brandon Nakashima to reach the quarterfinals, the 29-year-old German will rise to the top spot on Monday.<\/p>\n
Zverev said his mission is to celebrate No. 1 in Vienna speaking the same language as fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, for sure. After Germany, for me this is the perfect place to become world number one because it\u2019s a German-speaking region,\u201d Zverev said. \u201cI absolutely love Vienna. I think the fans are unbelievably supportive of me here.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yeah, I would definitely enjoy that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his Vienna debut, Landaluce played bolder tennis saving the first two match points\u2014including attacking behind a forehand and knocking off a high forehand volley on the second match point. That stand helped the Spaniard force the final-set tie break.<\/p>\n
Credit Zverev for going all in on that second serve to save match point at 5-6. Another stinging Zverev serve forced an errant forehand return as he saved the second match point for 8-all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout this match, the Spaniard challenged Zverev\u2019s sometimes spinny forehand wing. On his third match point, Landaluce engaged in a forehand exchange but netted a forehand down the line on the 11th shot.<\/p>\n
Zverev zapped his eighth ace out wide erasing a fourth match point for 10-all.<\/p>\n
Showing spring in his legs more than three hours into the match, Zverev raced up to a drop shot, shoveled a reply down the line and gained his fifth match point when Landaluce\u2019s lunging volley fell wide.<\/p>\n
The three hour, five-minute battle ended when Landaluce scattered an inside-out forehand wide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been on tour for a long time. Everything happens,\u201d Zverev said of the wild finish. \u201cBut yeah, I mean, look, it was an extraordinary match. I think the way I saved the match points as well,\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to give myself credit because I think I played phenomenal on the match points, and I\u2019m definitely happy with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, October 27, 2026Photo credit: Screen Shot Vienna is Alexander Zverev\u2019s gateway to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-897647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}