Alexander Zverev records milestone 500th win of career with victory over Arnaldi in Toronto

Alexander Zverev hit a big milestone in Toronto on Thursday night, recording the 500th win of his career with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Matteo Arnaldi in the third round of the Masters 1000 event.

"It's a great achievement," Zverev said. "I think there's not a lot of players that have reached that milestone. For me that's great to reach it. I still want 500 more, maybe, to come, maybe even more!

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

And with that, he joins some very exclusive lists.

First of all, he’s just the fifth active men's tennis player to record 500 or more career wins, joining Novak Djokovic (1,150), Marin Cilic (593), Gael Monfils (583) and Stan Wawrinka (580).

Secondly, he’s just the third German man in the Open Era to hit that number, after Boris Becker (713) and Tommy Haas (569).

And most importantly, Zverev, who was born in 1997, is the first man born in 1990 or later—or even 1989 or later—to achieve the feat.

Until Zverev did it in Toronto on Thursday night, the most recently-born man to achieve the feat was Cilic, who was born in 1988.

Zverev is the 57th man in the entire Open Era to reach 500 career wins, but one of just 25 men in the Open Era with 500 or more career wins and a career winning percentage of 70% or higher.

THE 25 MEN IN THE OPEN ERA WITH 500+ CAREER WINS AND A .700+ CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGE (in order of most career wins):

• Jimmy Connors [1,274-283, .818]
• Roger Federer [1,251-275, .820]
• Novak Djokovic [1,150-231, .833]
• Rafael Nadal [1,080-228, .826]
• Ivan Lendl [1,068-242, .815]
• Guillermo Vilas [951-297, .762]
• Ilie Nastase [908-334, .731]
• John McEnroe [863-198, .817]
• Andre Agassi [870-274, .760]
• Stefan Edberg [801-270, .748]
• Arthur Ashe [799-260, .754]
• Stan Smith [779-305, .719]
• Pete Sampras [762-222, .774]
• Andy Murray [739-262, .738]
• Manuel Orantes [724-294, .711]
• Boris Becker [713-214, .769]
• Tom Okker [666-274, .709]
• Bjorn Borg [654-140, .824]
• Lleyton Hewitt [616-262, .702]
• Andy Roddick [612-213, .742]
• Rod Laver [576-146, .798]
• Mats Wilander [571-222, .720]
• John Newcombe [568-227, .714]
• Ken Rosewall [546-192, .740]
• Alexander Zverev [500-212, .702]

And if history is anything to go by, Zverev is due for a major title, as 23 of the other 24 names on the above list won at least one major in their careers. The only one who didn't was Okker, who reached one major final at the 1968 US Open (finishing runner-up to Ashe).

Zverev came out swinging against Arnaldi in the first set, not only breaking en route to a 4-2 lead, but also holding two more break points in that game that would've given him a 5-2 lead.

Arnaldi would hold, get the break back and eventually sneak out the marathon first set after 81 minutes on court.

From there it was all Zverev, though, as he jumped out to a 3-0 lead en route to taking the second set, then won five games in a row from 1-2 to run away with the third. He closed it out after two hours and 46 minutes when one last Arnaldi backhand clipped the net.

Awaiting the No. 1-seeded German in the fourth round will be No. 14-seeded Francisco Cerundolo, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against fellow Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry earlier in the day.

Cerundolo has beaten Zverev all three times they've played previously, though all three of those meetings did come on clay.