Alexander Zverev joins Pete Sampras on an unfortunate list after Paris loss.

Alexander Zverev has joined Pete Sampras on an unfortunate list.

The German lost to Lorenzo Musetti in the second round of the Paris Masters.

That defeat closed out his 2026 season at Masters 1000 events.

And the numbers now show something rare.

According to statisticians OptaAce, Zverev has become the fourth year-end world No. 1 since 1990 not to win an ATP Masters 1000 title in that same season.

The others are Stefan Edberg in 1991, Pete Sampras in 1996 and 1998, and Lleyton Hewitt in 2001.

Sampras is widely considered one of the greatest players in tennis history.

But this is still an unwanted piece of history.

Zverev snatched the world No. 1 ranking from Jannik Sinner last week.

He did it by defeating Tallon Griekspoor in the Vienna Open second round.

Since then, he has lost twice.

First to Alex de Minaur.

Then to Lorenzo Musetti in Paris.

Both defeats came in his first two matches as the top-ranked player.

Zverev has enjoyed his best year on the Tour overall.

He won two Grand Slam titles in 2026: Roland Garros and the US Open.

He achieved the world No. 1 ranking for the first time.

He is now guaranteed to be the year-end No. 1 after Carlos Alcaraz's shock loss in Shanghai.

But on the Masters 1000 stage, he has far from impressed.

He failed to win a single title at any of the nine tournaments.

In fact, he reached the final at just one of them: the Madrid Open.

In Madrid, he was comfortably defeated 6-1, 6-2 by Jannik Sinner.

That was his fourth consecutive loss to the Italian at Masters tournaments.

With his latest loss to Musetti in Paris, the German has created this unwanted tennis history.

The Paris Masters is the last Masters 1000 event of the season.

Zverev's journey there ended in the second round.

He now has to look ahead.

Zverev will compete in the ATP Finals later this month.

He is a two-time champion at the event.

He won the title in 2018 and 2021.

That event could offer a chance to reset.

Meanwhile, the Paris Masters draw has opened up.

With Zverev gone, a qualifier named Rinky Hijikata now faces Luca Van Assche in the quarter-finals.

Hijikata knocked out Novak Djokovic on Wednesday.

He then beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry on Thursday.

On paper, that quarter-final could have been Zverev against Djokovic.

But at this stage of the season, as Ben Shelton put it on Thursday, "everyone is probably cooked."

Van Assche himself reached his first Masters 1000 quarter-final by beating Musetti 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.

He converted his first match point with a superb drop volley.

It was also a revenge win.

Two weeks ago, Musetti had beaten him 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in a 3-hour-32-minute marathon in the Lyon quarter-finals.

That match finished at 1:17 a.m.

Musetti went on to win the Lyon title.

This time the Frenchman had the last word.

He broke at 4-4 in the decider after saving two break points at 15-40 in the previous game.

The Paris crowd chanted his name.

Van Assche called it "a childhood dream."

"It was a childhood dream to play on a Court Central like this," he told the crowd.