Stefanos Tsitsipas downs Alexander Zverev for 50th win of the year, qualifies for ATP Finals

In the first all-Top 10 match-up of this year’s Rolex Paris Masters, No. 6-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated No. 9-ranked Alexander Zverev on Thursday, 7-6 (2), 6-4, to move into the quarterfinals.

It was a big victory for Tsitsipas in several ways—most obviously the victory made him the sixth qualifier for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, after Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev.

But there’s more—a lot more, in fact.

First of all, Tsitsipas’ win over Zverev was his 50th win of the year.

Second of all, he’s now won 50 or more matches in each of the last three years, having recorded 55 wins in 2021 and 61 wins in 2022.

And last but most impressively, Tsitsipas has become one of only two players, male or female, to record 50 or more wins in each of the last three years. Rublev is the only other player to do it with 53 wins in 2021, 51 wins in 2022 and 55 wins so far in 2023.

This club is now exclusive to Rublev and Tsitsipas, too. The only other player, male or female, to have 50 or more wins in each of the last two years was Casper Ruud with 57 in 2021 and 51 in 2022—but he’s stuck at 37 this year and after falling at the Rolex Paris Masters yesterday he has no path to 50 in 2023 anymore.

Tsitsipas has now qualified for the ATP Finals for the last five years in a row, starting with his breakthrough run to the title there in 2019.

The Greek is one of only three players to qualify for the ATP Finals the last five years in a row, along with Djokovic and Medvedev. Djokovic is actually at six in a row now and 16 times overall, having made the cut every year from 2007 to 2016 and 2018 to 2023.

But back to this week, awaiting Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals of Paris will be Karen Khachanov, who beat Roman Safiullin—conqueror of Carlos Alcaraz—from a set down earlier in the day, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Tsitsipas leads Khachanov in their head-to-head, 6-1, but Khachanov’s win actually came in their most recent meeting, a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory in the round of 16 in Miami earlier this year.

Khachanov is a former champion in Paris, winning here in 2018.