Which Stars Have Fallen Out of the ATP Top Ten in 2026?

After four hours and 16 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier back in June, Alexander Zverev beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5-7), 6-1 at Roland Garros to become the first German man to win a major since Boris Becker in 1996. He'd lost the 2020 US Open, 2024 French Open, and 2025 Australian Open finals; this time, as he put it, "now finally, it's a happy end." Yes, the door opened up: Carlos Alcaraz withdrew injured, Jannik Sinner let a two-set, 5-1 lead slip against Juan Manuel Cerundolo, and Novak Djokovic soon followed. Zverev still had to walk through it.

After losing the Wimbledon final to Sinner, he arrived in the Big Apple as the top seed with Sinner absent this time. Ben Shelton then ended the returning Alcaraz's run at 3:33 a.m. after an epic quarterfinal, ensuring that Zverev was the betting favorite to win a Slam for a second time this year. The popular Lucky Rebel Sportsbook listed the German as an even-money front-runner to leave Arthur Ashe with the title, and he duly lived up to the billing, beating Shelton 6-3, 7-6(7-2), 5-7, 6-2, in the showpiece to become only the fourth man in the Open era to win his first two majors in one season. 

“I think God has seen how hard we have worked, how hard we have suffered and how much pain we went through. I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before,” he said. Now, Zverev finds himself ranked at number two in the world with 9,790 points at the time of writing, over 4,000 clear of Alcaraz, and he has already secured his spot in Turin.

But at the opposite end of the spectrum, three men who finished 2025 inside the world's top ten have spent 2026 losing their place, sliding out of contention, perhaps never to return. 

Novak Djokovic has been in the world's top ten since his Wimbledon title in July 2018. He reached all four major semi-finals in 2025, won his 100th and 101st titles in Geneva and Athens, and finished the year ranked fourth, though a shoulder injury ruled him out of Turin. 

At 38, the target was a 25th major on a trimmed schedule. Melbourne nearly delivered it: Lorenzo Musetti retired two sets up, Djokovic saved 16 break points to beat Sinner in five, then lost his first Australian Open final to Alcaraz. He then withdrew from Doha, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Geneva, and Montreal, and lost to qualifier Dino Prizmic in Rome and Joao Fonseca in five sets in Paris. 

At Wimbledon, he edged Felix Auger-Aliassime in a fifth-set tie-break before Sinner beat him in straight sets in the semis. Then the US Open, where Father Time officially caught up in front of the world's eyes: vomiting, cramping, back and shoulder failing, a five-set loss to Mariano Navone, his first opening-round major defeat since 2006. 

Dropping from fourth to 12th left the top ten without a Big Three member for the first time since October 2002. He's 11th now, faces Nuno Borges in Beijing, and has his work cut out if he is to secure a 17th Finals berth.

For Taylor Fritz, 2026 has been a running negotiation with his own knee. He finished 2025 at No. 6, with grass titles in Stuttgart and Eastbourne, a first Wimbledon semi-final and a fifth straight year as the top American. 

Knee tendonitis and an oblique problem were already hampering him when Musetti beat him in the Melbourne fourth round. Shelton saved three championship points against him in a final in Dallas. After a Miami loss to Jiri Lehecka, his team told him they were "not coming with you" to Europe if he kept playing hurt. After skipping the clay Masters, he fell first up at Roland Garros to wildcard Nishesh Basavareddy. 

Grass revived him, with finals in Stuttgart and Halle, a Wimbledon quarter-final against Zverev, then the Washington title over Rafael Jodar. But two sets up on Francisco Cerundolo in the US Open third round, he lost in five. 

He recently slipped two places to 12th in the world rankings. He opens in Tokyo against a qualifier, roughly 300 points off eighth in the Race as of mid-September. The way back depends entirely on whether his knee is fully healed.

In January, the ceiling looked limitless. Musetti finished 2025 at No. 8, his first year-end top-ten finish, after a maiden Masters 1000 final in Monte Carlo, semi-finals in Madrid, Rome, and Paris, a US Open quarter-final, plus finals in Chengdu and Athens and a Turin debut as an alternate. A Hong Kong final and a career-high No. 5 followed. 

Is there a cleaner illustration of how fine the margins are than going from two sets up on Djokovic in Melbourne to outside the top twenty within eight months? An arm problem pulled him out of Miami, and Valentin Vacherot beat him first up in Monte Carlo. In Rome, he lost 6-3, 6-1 to Casper Ruud with what scans showed was a rectus femoris injury; Hamburg, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon went with it. 

Unable to defend last year's Rome semi-final points, he left the top ten in mid-May, and 123rd-ranked wildcard Dane Sweeny beat him in the US Open second round. He was 24th on the September 21 list, and 31st in the Race. Talent overruled, again, by his body.