title: Times Square

text: In the 1980s, a commercial building boom began in the western parts of Midtown as part of a long-term development plan developed under mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins. These included office buildings such as 1540 Broadway, 1585 Broadway, and 750 Seventh Avenue, as well as hotels such as the Macklowe Hotel, Marriott Marquis, Crowne Plaza, and DoubleTree Suites. By 1986, New York City Planning Commission (CPC) was considering enacting regulations that would have forced new buildings along Times Square to include bright signage as well as deep setbacks. The CPC adopted a planning regulation in 1987, which required large new developments in Times Square to set aside about 5 percent of their space for "entertainment uses". The regulation also required new buildings on Times Square to include large, bright signs.


title: Times Square

text: The buildings at 1540 Broadway, 1585 Broadway, and 750 Seventh Avenue were completed at with the beginning of the early 1990s recession, when 14.5 percent of Manhattan office space was vacant. Furthermore, some of office space in the western section of Midtown had been developed in the 1980s, of which only half had been leased. Consequently, 1540 Broadway was completely empty, while 1585 Broadway and 750 Seventh Avenue had one tenant each, despite the buildings having over of office space between them. Entertainment conglomerate Bertelsmann bought 1540 Broadway in 1992, spurring a revival of Times Square in the early 1990s. This was hastened when financial firm Morgan Stanley bought 1585 Broadway in 1993, followed by 750 Seventh Avenue in 1994.


title: Times Square

text: The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), an agency of the New York state government, had proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981. Four towers designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee were to be built around 42nd Street's intersections with Broadway and Seventh Avenue. These towers would have been redeveloped by George Klein of Park Tower Realty, though the Prudential Insurance Company of America joined the project in 1986. Furthermore, as part of the West Midtown special zoning district created in 1982, the New York City government had allowed new buildings in Times Square to be developed with an increased floor area ratio. To ensure the area would not be darkened at nightfall, the city passed zoning regulations that encouraged developers to add large, bright signs on their buildings.


title: Times Square

text: In 1990, the State of New York took possession of six of the nine historic theaters on 42nd Street, and the New 42nd Street non-profit organization was appointed to oversee their restoration and maintenance. The theaters underwent renovation for Broadway shows, conversion for commercial purposes, or demolition. Opposition to the towers on Times Square, along with Prudential and Park Tower's inability to secure tenants for the proposed buildings, led government officials to allow Prudential and Park Tower to postpone the project in 1992. By then, Prudential had spent $300 million on condemning the sites through eminent domain. The partners retained the right to develop the sites in the future, and the ESDC's zoning guidelines remained in effect. In exchange for being permitted to delay construction of the sites until 2002, Prudential and Park Tower were compelled to add stores and install large signage on the existing buildings.


title: Times Square

text: In 1992, the Times Square Alliance (formerly the Times Square Business Improvement District, or "BID" for short), a coalition of city government and local businesses dedicated to improving the quality of commerce and cleanliness in the district, started operations in the area. In 1998, the alliance opened a tourist information center in the former Embassy Theatre at 1560 Broadway; the information center operated until 2014.


title: Times Square

text: In the mid-1990s, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led an effort to clean up the area, an effort that is described by Steve Macek in "Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, and the Moral Panic Over the City": Security was increased, pornographic theatres were closed, and "undesirable" low-rent residents were pressured to relocate, and then more tourist-friendly attractions and upscale establishments were opened. Advocates of the remodeling claim that the neighborhood is safer and cleaner. Detractors have countered that the changes have homogenized or "Disneyfied" the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower-income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods such as Hell's Kitchen. The changes were shaped in large part by the actions of The Walt Disney Company, which bought and restored the New Amsterdam Theatre after several attempts at redevelopment had failed. As part of a contract with Disney, officials from the city and state evicted the pornographic theaters and contracted with Madame Tussauds and AMC Theatres to move onto 42nd Street. This spurred the construction of new office towers, hotels, and tourist attractions in the area.


title: Times Square

text: Prudential and Klein dissolved their partnership for the four office-building sites at Times Square's southern end in 1996. The same year, Douglas Durst acquired the site at the northeast corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, and he developed 4 Times Square there. The northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street was taken by Reuters, which enlisted Rudin Management as its development partner and built 3 Times Square on that corner; that building opened in 2001. In 1998, a joint venture of Klein, The Blackstone Group, and Boston Properties won the right to acquire the sites at the southwest and southeast corners of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue for $330 million. 5 Times Square was completed on the southwest-corner site in 2002, and Times Square Tower opened on the southeast-corner site in 2004.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square now boasts attractions such as ABC's Times Square Studios, where "Good Morning America" is broadcast live; competing Hershey's and M&M's stores across the street from each other, and multiple multiplex movie theaters. Additionally, the area contains restaurants such as the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a seafood establishment; Planet Hollywood Restaurant and Bar, a theme restaurant; and Carmine's, serving Italian cuisine. It has also attracted several large financial, publishing, and media firms to set up headquarters in the area. A larger presence of police has improved the safety of the area.


title: Times Square

text: The theatres of Broadway and the huge number of animated neon and LED signs have been one of New York's iconic images as well as a symbol of the intensely urban aspects of Manhattan. Since 1987 such signage has been mandated by zoning ordinances that require building owners to display illuminated signs, the only district in New York City with this requirement. The neighborhood has a minimum limit for lighting instead of the standard maximum limit. The density of illuminated signs in Times Square rivals that in Las Vegas. Officially, signs in Times Square are called "spectaculars", and the largest of them are called "jumbotrons". This signage ordinance was implemented in accordance with guidelines set in a revitalization program that New York Governor Mario Cuomo implemented in 1993.


title: Times Square

text: Notable signage includes the Toshiba billboard directly under the NYE ball drop, the curved seven-story NASDAQ sign at the NASDAQ MarketSite at 4 Times Square on 43rd Street, and the curved Coca-Cola sign located underneath another large LED display owned and operated by Samsung. Both the Coca-Cola sign and Samsung LED displays were built by LED display manufacturer Daktronics. Times Square's first environmentally friendly billboard powered by wind and solar energy was first lit on December 4, 2008. On completion, the 20 Times Square development will host the largest LED signage in Times Square at 18,000 square feet. The display will be 1,000 square feet larger than the Times Square Walgreens display and one of the largest video-capable screens in the world.


title: Times Square

text: In 2002, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani administered the oath of office to the city's next mayor, Michael Bloomberg, at Times Square after midnight on January 1 as part of the 2001–02 New Year's celebration. Approximately 500,000 revelers attended. Security was high following the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, with more than 7,000 New York City police officers on duty in the Square, twice the number for an ordinary year.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square started hosting other major annual events in the 2000s. Since 2002, the summer solstice has been marked by "Mind over Madness", a mass yoga event involving up to 15,000 people. Tim Tompkins, a co-founder of the event, said part of its appeal was "finding stillness and calm amid the city rush on the longest day of the year". Architect Mark Foster Gage proposed and designed the original Times Square Valentine's Day heart in 2009. Since then, designing the heart has become an annual competition.


title: Times Square

text: In February 2011, Times Square became smoke-free as New York extended the outdoors smoking ban to the area. The measure imposed a $50 fine for any person caught smoking within the area. From January 29 to February 1, 2014, a "Super Bowl Boulevard" was held on Broadway, especially in Times Square, between 34th and 47th Streets, as part of Super Bowl XLVIII. The boulevard contained activities such as autographs, a -high toboggan run, and photographs with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The area was under increased security and witnessed over 400,000 people during the period.


title: Times Square

text: In October 2022, casino operator Caesars Entertainment and commercial property developer SL Green submitted a joint proposal to open a casino at 1515 Broadway, along Times Square. The New York state government has yet to act on the proposal.


title: Times Square

text: On February 26, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that traffic lanes along Broadway from 42nd Street to 47th Street would be de-mapped starting Memorial Day 2009 and transformed into pedestrian plazas as a trial until at least the end of the year. The same was done in Herald Square from 33rd to 35th Street. The results were to be closely monitored to determine if the project was successful and should be extended. Bloomberg also stated that he believed the street shutdown would make New York more livable by reducing pollution, cutting down on pedestrian-vehicle accidents, and helping traffic flow more smoothly through the Midtown street grid.


title: Times Square

text: The pedestrian plaza project was originally opposed by local businesses, who thought that closing the street to cars would hurt business. The original seats put out for pedestrians were inexpensive multicolored plastic lawn chairs, a source of amusement to many New Yorkers; they lasted from the onset of the plaza transformation until August 14, 2009, when they were ceremoniously bundled together in an installation christened "Now You See It, Now You Don't" by the artist Jason Peters, and shortly afterward were replaced by sturdier metal furniture. Although the plaza had mixed results on traffic in the area, injuries to motorists and pedestrians decreased, fewer pedestrians were walking in the road, and the number of pedestrians in Times Square increased. On February 11, 2010, Bloomberg announced that the pedestrian plazas would become permanent.


title: Times Square

text: The city started rebuilding the plaza in 2010, hiring the design and landscaping firm Snøhetta to permanently replace Broadway's roadway with custom-made granite pavers and benches. By December 2013, the first phase of the Times Square pedestrian plaza had been completed at the southern end of the square in time for the Times Square Ball drop on New Year's Eve. The project was originally intended to be completed by the end of 2015. The entire project was finally completed just before New Year's Eve 2016. Some safety bollards were also installed as part of the renovation to prevent vehicular attacks or collisions on the sidewalk. After a 2017 vehicle-ramming attack, there were calls to install more bollards along Times Square.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square's pedestrian plaza is frequented by topless women (with painted breasts) called "desnudas", as well as costumed characters, who typically panhandle for tips. The pedestrian plaza became a source of controversy in the summer of 2015 because of a large number of complaints about the topless women and panhandling characters. Although neither of these activities was illegal, opponents believed that the panhandlers' presence was detrimental to the quality of life in the area. There were calls from Police Commissioner Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio to remove the plaza, although Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer opposed the proposal. In June 2016, work started on "pedestrian flow zones" where no one was allowed to loiter, as well as "activity zones" where costumed characters were allowed to perform.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square is the most visited place globally with 360,000 pedestrian visitors a day, amounting to over 131 million a year. , it had a greater attendance than do each of the Disney theme parks worldwide, with 128,794,000 visitors between March 2012 and February 2013, versus 126,479,000 for the Walt Disney World theme parks in Bay Lake, Florida, in 2012. Even excluding residents from the visitor count, Times Square is the world's second most visited tourist attraction, behind the Las Vegas Strip. The high level of pedestrian traffic has resulted in $4.8 billion in annual retail, entertainment, and hotel sales, with 22 cents out of every dollar spent by visitors in New York City being spent within Times Square.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. About one million revelers crowd Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebrations, more than twice the usual number of visitors the area usually receives daily. However, for the millennium celebration on December 31, 1999, published reports stated approximately two million people overflowed Times Square, flowing from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue and back on Broadway and Seventh Avenue to 59th Street, making it the largest gathering in Times Square since August 1945 during celebrations marking the end of World War II.


title: Times Square

text: On December 31, 1907, a ball signifying New Year's Day was first dropped at Times Square, and the Square has held the main New Year's celebration in New York City ever since. On that night, hundreds of thousands of people congregate to watch the Waterford Crystal ball being lowered on a pole atop the building, marking the start of the new year. It replaced a lavish fireworks display from the top of the building that was held from 1904 to 1906 but stopped by city officials because of the danger of fire. Beginning in 1908, and for more than eighty years thereafter, Times Square sign maker Artkraft Strauss was responsible for the ball-lowering. During World War II, a minute of silence, followed by a recording of church bells pealing, replaced the ball drop because of wartime blackout restrictions. Today, Countdown Entertainment and One Times Square handle the New Year's Eve event in conjunction with the Times Square Alliance. A new energy-efficient LED ball debuted for the arrival of 2008, which was the centennial of the Times Square ball drop. The 2008–09 ball is larger and has become a permanent installation as a year-round attraction, being used for celebrations on days such as Valentine's Day and Halloween.


title: Times Square

text: The New Year's Eve celebrations are usually overseen by thousands of police officers. Aluminum barriers are erected to accommodate spectators; for the 2020 celebration, attended by a million people, barriers were erected from 38th to 59th Street and from Sixth to Eighth Avenue. Typically, the celebrations create large amounts of waste. The New York City Department of Sanitation estimated that by 8 a.m. on New Year's Day 2014, it had cleared over of trash from the New Year's celebration, using 190 workers from their crews and the Times Square Alliance.


title: Times Square

text: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City during 2020 reduced the number of people traveling to Times Square. About 108,000 pedestrians visited Times Square each day in late 2020 compared to the 380,000 before the pandemic. From March to October 2020, 26 of the area's 46 hotels closed, as well as 39 of 151 stores and 84 of 162 restaurants. Times Square was closed to the public for New Year's Day 2021 and observers were dispersed into enclosures measuring .


title: Times Square

text: Times Square is a busy intersection of art and commerce, where scores of advertisements – electric, neon and illuminated signs and "zipper" news crawls – vie for viewers' attention. Notable examples include:


title: Times Square

text: Contemporary artists regularly perform on Times Square. Examples include "test patterns[times square]" by Ryoji Ikeda and "Continuum" by Krista Kim.


title: Times Square

text: An immediately recognizable location, Times Square has been featured countless times in literature, films, video games, music videos, and on television.


title: Times Square

text: The seediness of the area was featured prominently in such films as "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), "Born to Win" (1971), and "Taxi Driver" (1976). The area was shown in the 1980 film "Times Square", which featured a punk rock/new wave soundtrack. It was also depicted in the 2011 movie "New Year's Eve". The area also appeared on "The Amazing Race" as the starting location in a race around the world in the first episode of the show's 25th season, as well as on the sixth season of the Israeli edition of "The Amazing Race" with teams finishing their second leg in Times Square.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square has been fictionally attacked and destroyed in several movies, including "Knowing", when a solar flare destroys New York City; "Deep Impact", when a tsunami created from a meteor impact destroys New York City; the 1998 film "Godzilla", where Godzilla is chased through the square; the "Ghostbusters" movies; Stephen King's "The Stand", where the intersection is overcome by total anarchy; "", and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". It was also seen in the festival battle scene in the 2002 film "Spider-Man", and a stand-off in the later film "The Amazing Spider-Man 2".


title: Times Square

text: Films and TV shows have also employed the opposite tactic, depicting the typically bustling area as eerily still, such as in "Vanilla Sky," as well as the post-apocalyptic "I Am Legend", in which Will Smith and his dog go hunting for deer in the deserted urban canyon. In the pilot episode of the TV series "Blindspot", Times Square is completely emptied due to an abandoned bag being suspected to be a bomb.


title: Times Square

text: Times Square also has featured prominently in video games. For instance, in "Grand Theft Auto IV", a recreation of the Times Square area referred to in-game as "Star Junction", is included in the game's fictional "Liberty City" setting. Times Square is also shown in "Battlefield 3", where the final fight with the main antagonist takes place, where the player must stop him from detonating a nuclear bomb in the square; and "Crysis 2", in which player must fight off attacking alien forces to assist U.S. Marines in evacuating the area. "Gran Turismo 4" also features Times Square both as a photo spot and as a part of the New York city circuit which also includes Central Park.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Alexander "Sascha" Zverev (; born 20 April 1997) is a German professional tennis player. He has been ranked by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) as high as world No. 2, and was continuously ranked in the top 10 from July 2017 to November 2022. Zverev's career highlights include titles at the 2018 and the 2021 ATP Finals, and a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has won 19 ATP Tour titles in singles and two in doubles, and reached his first major final at the 2020 US Open, finishing runner-up to Dominic Thiem. Zverev is the only active player outside of the Big Four with five Masters 1000 titles. He sustained an ankle injury during the semifinals of the 2022 French Open against Rafael Nadal and already recovered from the injury. And after 7 months will take part in the World Tennis League 2022.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev is a former junior world No. 1, and won a junior major singles title at the 2014 Australian Open. He had an early breakthrough on the professional tour as well, becoming one of the youngest Challenger Tour title winners in history at the age of 17. As a teenager, Zverev won two ATP titles and upset then-world No. 3 Roger Federer on grass. At 20 years old, he became the youngest player to debut in the top 20 since Novak Djokovic. At the Laver Cup, Zverev has played an instrumental role in Team Europe's early success in the competition, winning the clinching matches in 2018 and 2019.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Alexander "Sascha" Zverev was born on 20 April 1997 in Hamburg, Germany to Russian parents, Irina Zvereva and Alexander Mikhailovich Zverev. His older brother Mischa, born nearly a decade earlier, is also a professional tennis player. Both of Sascha's parents were professional tennis players for the Soviet Union. His father, ranked as high as No. 175 in the world, became the top-ranked men's player nationally, while his mother was the fourth-highest ranked women's player in the Soviet Union. They both moved from Sochi to the capital to train at the CSKA Moscow military-run tennis club. The Soviet government often restricted their players from competing outside the country, an impediment that limited how high either of Sascha's parents could rise in the world rankings. With the collapse of the Soviet Union imminent, Irina went to Germany to compete at a tournament in 1990, with her husband accompanying as her coach. While in Germany, they were offered jobs as tennis instructors. After initially declining, they accepted an offer to work at the Uhlenhorster Hockey Club in Hamburg the following year and ended up settling in the country.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev started playing tennis at the age of 3. Since Sascha began playing tennis at a very young age, he has said, "One day, when I was I think one year and five months old, I just picked up a little racket, and I was starting to push the ball all over our apartment, and since then, they took me out on the court. I enjoy it still, I enjoyed it back then." When he was five years old, he started to play tennis at least half an hour each day. Sascha was extremely competitive as a child. His brother Mischa said, "He would not understand or accept that he was losing" when the two would play against each other. He would never want to leave the court unless he won the match. Sascha also played hockey and football as a child but decided to focus only on tennis around the age of 12 after an early-round loss at a high-level international junior tournament in Florida.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: When Sascha was young, his mother was his primary coach while his father was focused on coaching his brother. He has said, "I think I have pretty good technique, which my mum did at a young age, so credit to her for that. My backhand, in particular, is 100 per cent down to my mum.” While his mother had a more relaxed teaching style, his father "had a very Soviet way of doing physical training sessions" that involved doing timed drills for fixed numbers of repetitions. Sascha's coaches aimed for him to have a riskier, aggressive playing style built around hitting the ball with pace and finishing points quickly. This was a big contrast from how he played around age 12 when his style centred around being an "unbelievable fighter" from the baseline in part because he was too slow to go to the net. Initially, Sascha struggled to change his playing style. He "made a lot of errors" and lost to opponents who excelled at keeping points alive. However, his father stuck with this strategy, saying, "We must practice fast tennis, aggressive tennis. If you lose today it’s no big deal. You must think about the future."


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev played his first junior match in January 2011 at the age of 13 at a grade 4 tournament in Poland. He is a former world No. 1 junior. He entered his first event on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior circuit in early 2011 when he was 13. Near the beginning of 2012, Zverev won his first ITF title at the Fujairah Junior Championships, a low-level Grade 4 tournament in the United Arab Emirates. He would pick up a lower level Grade 5 title at the Oman International Junior 2 a few weeks later, which led him to begin competing in higher-level events shortly before his 15th birthday. He did not have much success at tournaments that were Grade 2 and above until the following year when he reached back-to-back doubles finals with Spencer Papa at the Grade A Copa Gerdau and the Grade 1 USTA International Spring Championships.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's early-season success in doubles proved to be the precursor of a major improvement in singles as well. During the European clay court season, he won his first Grade 1 title over Andrey Rublev at the Open International Junior de Beaulieu-sur-Mer. He followed up that performance with his first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio a month later, becoming the youngest boys' singles champion in the tournament's history. He also finished runner-up at the 2013 French Open to Cristian Garín. Zverev had some grass court success as well, finishing runner-up to Nick Kyrgios at the Junior International Roehampton. However, he needed to retire at Wimbledon due to a shoulder injury. Zverev came close to reaching another major boys' singles final at the 2013 Junior US Open, but was defeated by the eventual champion Borna Ćorić in the semifinals. This success was enough for him to take over the No. 1 ranking in late October. Before the end of the season, Zverev also represented Germany in the Junior Fed Cup, leading them to a fourth-place finish. His last tournament of the year was the Grade A Orange Bowl, where he was defeated by Stefan Kozlov in the semifinals. As the top-ranked junior at the end of the season, he was named the ITF Junior World Champion, becoming the youngest boys' champion since Donald Young in 2005.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev played just two tournaments in 2014, both in Australia in January. He won the singles events at both tournaments, the first of which came against Australian Omar Jasika at the Traralgon Junior International. At the Australian Open, he was able to defeat Kozlov, who was seeded second, to finish his junior career with a first major title.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: As the age of 14, Zverev entered qualifying at three different tournaments, including the 2011 Moselle Open on the ATP Tour, but lost all of his matches. He won his professional main draw debut against compatriot Christian Lichtenegger at a Futures event in Germany in August 2012. At the end of the year, he made his first professional final, finishing runner-up to Florian Reynet at an ITF $10K event in Florida. Zverev continued to focus on the juniors in 2013 and did not reach another pro-level final that year, but he did make his main draw debut on the ATP Tour in July, losing to Roberto Bautista Agut at his hometown tournament, the International German Open. He also made his ATP Challenger Tour debut, losing to Máximo González at the Meerbusch Challenger in August.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: After winning the boys' singles title at the 2014 Australian Open, Zverev shifted his focus to his professional career, only playing in pro events the rest of the year. Initially, he struggled on the pro tour, failing to qualify for the main draw at his first five events of the season. He did not win a main draw match until he recorded a single victory at the Heilbronner Neckarcup Challenger, his tenth event of the year. One of his losses was a retirement against his brother Mischa. Zverev made his first professional breakthrough in July when he won the Braunschweig Challenger for his first professional title, despite entering the tournament with just one career Challenger-level match win and no top 100 victories. Three of the players he defeated were in the top 100, including his first-round opponent No. 87 Tobias Kamke, his semifinal opponent No. 56 Andrey Golubev, and his final opponent No. 89 Paul-Henri Mathieu.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the age of 17 years and 2 months, he became the youngest player to win a Challenger title since Bernard Tomic in 2009 and the twelfth youngest in history. Zverev followed up this title with a breakthrough at the ATP Tour level. He entered the International German Open having never won an ATP match but managed to reach the semifinals. He recorded four match wins at the event, including his first career victory against Robin Haase and his first top 20 victory over No. 16 Mikhail Youzhny before losing to No. 7 David Ferrer. He became the first 17-year old to defeat a top 20 opponent since Richard Gasquet in 2004 and the first to make a semifinal since Marin Čilić in 2006. Zverev had risen from No. 665 to No. 285 after his Challenger title, and his ATP 500 Series semifinal appearance took him to No. 161 in the world. He finished the season ranked No. 136.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the beginning of the season, Zverev was still ranked too low to receive direct entry into the main draws of ATP Tour events, which forced him to continue playing Challenger events through July. He also needed to enter qualifying for ATP events throughout the year. Zverev did not qualify for either of the first two major singles events of the season. He was able to qualify for his first Masters event at the Miami Open and reached the second round. During the clay-court season, Zverev partnered with his brother Mischa to reach his first career ATP final in doubles at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships. The Zverev brothers finished runner-up to top-seeded Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares. Later that month, he won his second career Challenger title at the Heilbronn Neckarcup to crack the top 100 of the ATP rankings.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: With a higher ranking, Zverev was directly accepted into Wimbledon. A week before the tournament, he took part in the Boodles Challenge exhibition and surprisingly upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets. Zverev backed up this performance in his Grand Slam tournament main draw debut, defeating Teymuraz Gabashvili in a tight match that lasted until 9–7 in the fifth and final set. He lost in the next round to Denis Kudla. Zverev opted to play on clay after Wimbledon and reached another ATP semifinal at the Swedish Open to put him back in the top 100 after one week out. In August, Zverev returned to the United States and competed in two US Open Series events. He notably upset No. 14 Kevin Anderson at the Citi Open en route to the quarterfinals. Zverev's brief rankings drop in July meant that he needed to qualify for the US Open. He succeeded, but lost his opening round match to compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber in five sets. Zverev won just one more main draw match the rest of the season and ended the year ranked No. 83 in the world. As the youngest player in the top 100, he was named the ATP Newcomer of the Year.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's first ATP event of the year was the 2016 Australian Open, where he had a difficult draw against world No. 2 Andy Murray and was only able to win six games in his opening match. He bounced back at the Open Sud de France, reaching the semifinals in the singles event and his second career final with his brother in the doubles event. During the singles event, he upset No. 13 Marin Čilić, the highest-ranked player he had defeated in an official match at the time. Zverev then produced a strong result at the Indian Wells Masters, where he defeated two top 30 players. In the fourth round, he nearly upset No. 5 Rafael Nadal. Zverev had a match point while he was serving for the final set, but missed a routine forehand volley and then proceeded to lose 14 of the remaining 15 points in the match. He commented on the match point that, "I missed probably the easiest shot I had the whole match." Back in Europe, Zverev was able to recover as he reached his first ATP singles final at the Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, finishing runner-up to No. 15 Dominic Thiem, the top seed and defending champion. Thiem also defeated him in the third round of the French Open.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's next breakthrough came during the grass court season at the Halle Open, where he upset world No. 3 Roger Federer in the semifinals, ending Federer's streak of ten consecutive appearances in the final while competing at the tournament. He was also the first teenager to defeat Federer since Murray nearly a decade earlier. Nonetheless, he finished runner-up at the event to veteran compatriot Florian Mayer. After this final, he entered the top 30 for the first time and stayed ranked in the 20s for the rest of the season. Despite being seeded at a major tournament for the first time, Zverev could then only match his best major singles result at Wimbledon, again falling to Berdych. During the US Open Series, he reached the semifinals of the Washington Open, but lost his opening round matches at both Masters events. He was then upset in the second round of the US Open by Dan Evans.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: After the US Open, Zverev returned to Europe and won his first career ATP title at the St. Petersburg Open. He recorded his first win over No. 9 Berdych in the semifinals, and No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the final, coming back from 0–3 down in the third set. At his next event, he then defeated No. 10 Thiem in the first round of the 2016 China Open for the first time in four tries this year. In doing so, Zverev became the first teenager to record three consecutive victories against top ten opponents since Boris Becker in 1986. Zverev's third round appearance at the Shanghai Masters then helped him rise to No. 20 in the ATP rankings, making him the youngest player to debut in the top 20 since Novak Djokovic in 2006.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: During the 2017 season, Zverev greatly improved his results at the higher level tournaments on the ATP Tour except for the four major events. At the Australian Open, Zverev again pushed Rafael Nadal to the brink, but ultimately lost in five sets. His next ATP tournament was the Open Sud de France, where he won both the singles and doubles events. He and his brother defeated Fabrice Martin and Daniel Nestor for Alexander's first doubles title. The following month, he made his first Masters quarterfinal at the Miami Open, upsetting No. 3 Stan Wawrinka along the way. Nick Kyrgios defeated him at both Masters events that month.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: After a slow start to the clay court season, Zverev won two more titles in May, the first of which came at home in Germany at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships. He then followed up a second Masters quarterfinal at the Madrid Open with his first Masters title at the Rome Masters. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final to become the youngest Masters champion since Djokovic in 2007 and the first such champion born in the 1990s. With the title, he also entered the top 10 for the first time. Despite his triumph in Rome, he lost his opening round match at the French Open. During the grass court season, Zverev made another singles final and again faced Federer at the Halle Open, but could not defeat him this time. He and his brother also finished runner-up in the doubles event to Łukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. At Wimbledon, he achieved his best result at a major event to date, ultimately losing to the previous year's runner-up Milos Raonic in a tight five set match.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Back on hard courts, Zverev won his last two titles of the season in August. He won the Washington Open as well as a second consecutive Masters title at the Canadian Open, only dropping a single set at each tournament in each of his opening matches. Notably, he needed to save three match points in his first match in Canada against Richard Gasquet, including a 49 shot rally. He then defeated Roger Federer in the final to become the first player outside of the Big Four to win multiple Masters titles in the same season since David Nalbandian in 2007. Despite this success, he was upset in the second round of the US Open by fellow Next Gen player Borna Ćorić. At the end of the season, Zverev qualified for both the inaugural Next Generation Finals as one of the top seven 21-and-under players, and the ATP Finals as one of the top eight players in the world. He opted to skip the former event to focus on the latter. At the ATP Finals, Zverev was grouped with Roger Federer, Marin Čilić, and Jack Sock. He defeated Čilić in his first match, but lost his final two matches and did not advance out of his round robin group. Zverev finished the year ranked No. 4, peaking at No. 3 right before the ATP Finals, and accumulated five ATP titles from just six finals.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev maintained his top 5 ranking throughout the year. However, he still did not deliver any high-calibre results at the major tournaments. He was upset at the Australian Open by reigning Next Gen Finals champion and No. 59 Chung Hyeon in five sets in the third round. Zverev stated that issues at majors were "definitely not physical" when asked if his problems were physical or mental, and also attribute this lack of success to the extra pressure he was putting on himself at these events. Zverev did not reach his first final of the year until early April at the Miami Masters. Despite taking the first set of the final, he finished runner-up to American John Isner, who had never previously won a Masters title.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev continued his Masters success into the clay-court season, reaching the semifinals at the Monte Carlo Masters, winning his third career Masters title at the Madrid Open, and making the final at the Rome Masters. In Madrid, he defeated Dominic Thiem in the final to become the only active player outside of the Big Four to have won three Masters titles. He came close to winning back-to-back Masters events, going up a break in the third set against Nadal at the Italian Open. However, Nadal was able to recover and win the final five games of the match after a rain delay. Zverev had also defended his title at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships in his only other French Open tune-up to help build up a 13 match win streak that lasted until the Italian Open final. He capped off his excellent clay court season by reaching his first major quarterfinal at the French Open. He needed to win three five-set matches to get that far before Thiem ended his run while he was faced with a hamstring injury.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Up until the year-end championships, Zverev struggled to build on his early season success. He lost in the third round at both Wimbledon and the US Open, and his best result at the four remaining Masters events was a semifinal at the Shanghai Masters. He was able to defend his title at the Washington Open, his only title during this period. Zverev also reached two more doubles finals with his brother, but did not win either of them. At the end of the season, Zverev qualified for both the Next Generation Finals and the ATP Finals for the second consecutive year, again choosing to only compete at the latter event. He was placed in a group with Novak Djokovic, Marin Čilić, and John Isner. This year, Zverev was able to advance out of the group, only losing to No. 1 Djokovic in the round robin. He faced Federer in the semifinals and defeated him in straight sets to set up a rematch with Djokovic. Despite being a heavy underdog and having just lost to Djokovic earlier in the week, Zverev won the final in straight sets for the tenth and biggest title of his career. He became the youngest tour champion since Djokovic a decade earlier and the first German to win the season-ending championships since Boris Becker in 1995. This was also Zverev's first victory over a current world No. 1 player.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev opened his 2019 season with a fourth round appearance at the 2019 Australian Open, defeating Jérémy Chardy in five sets in the second round before losing to Milos Raonic in straight sets. Zverev next played at the Mexican Open and finished runner-up to Nick Kyrgios. Following this tournament, he did not win more than one match at any of his next six events, a streak that ended with two match wins at the Madrid Open. Nonetheless, Zverev finished the clay court season strong. The week before the French Open, he won his only title of the year at the Geneva Open, defeating Nicolás Jarry in the final after saving two match points in the third set tiebreak. He then went on to defeat No. 12 Fabio Fognini and reach his second consecutive quarterfinal at the French Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. Zverev did not follow through on that success into the grass court season, where his best result was a quarterfinal at the Halle Open. He was upset in the first round at both the Stuttgart Open and Wimbledon, the latter of which to qualifier Jiří Veselý. Zverev attributed his early season struggles to being distracted by a legal dispute with his former agent Patricio Apey, with whom he had split from in the offseason.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev began to turn his season around following Wimbledon. He reached the semifinals of the German Open and the quarterfinals at the Canadian Open. He then reached the last 16 at the US Open for the first time, where he lost to seed No. 20 Diego Schwartzman to continue his lack of success at the major tournaments. He had also fallen out of the top 5 in early August for the first time in nearly two years. Zverev's best result of the season came at the Shanghai Masters. He upset No. 3 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals before finishing runner-up to No. 4 Daniil Medvedev, who was playing in his sixth consecutive final. This performance helped him qualify for the ATP Finals at the end of the year. At the event, Zverev was drawn into a round-robin group with Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Daniil Medvedev. He defeated Nadal for the first time in his opening match before losing to Tsitsipas. He then won his match against Medvedev, which he had needed to win to advance via the tiebreak criteria. Nonetheless, he could not defend his title, losing to Dominic Thiem in the semifinals. Zverev finished the season at No. 7 in the world.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev began his 2020 season at the inaugural ATP Cup, playing singles matches against Alex De Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Denis Shapovalov; losing all three.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: He was seeded seventh at the 2020 Australian Open. He first defeated Marco Cecchinato in straight sets; after the match, he pledged to donate all his prize money from the tournament to relief efforts for the ongoing bushfires if he won the title, a total of A$4.12 million. He then defeated Egor Gerasimov, Fernando Verdasco, and 17th seed Andrey Rublev to reach the quarterfinals without dropping a set. There, he defeated 15th seed Stan Wawrinka in four sets to reach his first major singles semifinal, where he lost against fifth seed Dominic Thiem in four sets.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the US Open, Zverev was seeded fifth. He defeated Kevin Anderson in four sets, then beat 19-year old Brandon Nakashima in four sets. In the third round, he beat Adrian Mannarino in four sets before beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in straight sets. In the quarterfinals, he beat Borna Coric in four sets to reach his second major semifinal. There, he lost the first two sets to Pablo Carreno Busta, but came back to win the match in five; this was his first-ever match win from two sets down. He thus advanced to his first major final, where he faced Dominic Thiem. He became the runner-up, losing the final in a final-set tiebreaker despite leading by two sets and twice coming within two points of the title in the final set.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev was seeded 6th at the French Open. He beat Dennis Novak, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Marco Cecchinato, before losing in four sets to Jannik Sinner.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In October, he won two consecutive ATP 250 events in Cologne, which took place in the 2020 ATP Tour because of the cancellation of several tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the finals, he defeated Félix Auger-Aliassime and Diego Schwartzman, both in straight sets.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev then reached the final of the Paris Masters, beating Nadal in straight sets in the semifinals, where he lost to Daniil Medvedev in three sets.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In the ATP Finals, Zverev was eliminated in the group stage after a three-set win over Diego Schwartzman, and straight-set losses to Djokovic and the eventual champion Medvedev.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev began his season in February with the ATP Cup, where he represented Germany with Jan-Lennard Struff, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies to reach the semi-finals. In his first Grand Slam tournament appearance at the 2021 Australian Open, he defeated Marcos Giron, Maxime Cressy, Adrian Mannarino and Dušan Lajović. His run ended in the quarterfinals, where he lost to the eventual champion and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. In March his first tournament was in Rotterdam, where he lost in the first round to Kazakh Alexander Bublik. He continued his performances in Acapulco, where he won his 14th ATP title by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final. At the tournament in Miami, he lost in the second round to Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At his first tournament in 2021 on clay in Monte Carlo, Zverev finished in the third round, losing to David Goffin. In Munich, he reached the quarterfinals, losing to the 107th ranked tennis player in the world, Ilya Ivashka.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the Madrid Open, Zverev defeated Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, and Matteo Berrettini en route to his fourth Masters 1000 title and 15th career title. At the same tournament, he also reached his first semifinal in doubles at a Masters 1000, partnering with compatriot Tim Pütz, but withdrew from the match. He reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome, losing to eventual tournament winner Rafael Nadal. In his second Grand Slam tournament of the year – in Paris, where he was seeded No. 6 – he won against Oscar Otte, Roman Safiullin, Laslo Đere, Kei Nishikori and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. In the semifinal, he played Stefanos Tsitsipas, to whom he lost after a 5-set battle.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's first appearance on grass started with a tournament at home in Halle – he lost in the second round to the eventual tournament winner Ugo Humbert. At Wimbledon, seeded No. 4, he equaled his best achievement at the tournament to date – reaching the fourth round for a second time. Along the way he defeated Tallon Griekspoor, Tennys Sandgren and Taylor Fritz. He was defeated in the fourth round by Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets. Following this run he returned to the top 5 after 2 years on 12 July 2021.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the Olympics, Zverev beat Yen-hsun Lu, Daniel Elahi Galán, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Jérémy Chardy to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals, despite being a set and a break down against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Zverev rallied to break back and won eight games in a row on his way to win in three sets. He defeated Karen Khachanov in straight sets in the final to claim the Olympic gold medal. Zverev became the first German man to win a gold medal in singles and the first to win a medal since Tommy Haas won his silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Following the Olympics, Zverev reached his second Masters 1000 final of the year at the 2021 Western & Southern Open after defeating Lloyd Harris, Guido Pella, Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas after a close three-set battle in the semifinal. Zverev had not won a match at the tournament in six prior appearances. He beat Andrey Rublev for the 17th title of his career and the fourth of the season, in 59 minutes, the shortest match in the tournament history.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the US Open, Zverev sought to claim his first major title following his run to the final the previous year. He reached the semifinals following wins over Jack Sock and Lloyd Harris. There, he lost to Novak Djokovic in five sets despite taking the first set, ending his career-high 16-match win streak stretching back to the Olympics.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev was seeded 3rd at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open, where he reached the quarterfinals. On the way, he defeated Jenson Brooksby, Andy Murray and Gaël Monfils. He lost to Taylor Fritz, despite having two match points.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, seeded second, he defeated Filip Krajinovic and Alex De Minaur to reach the quarterfinals. The victory over De Minaur gave Zverev his 300th ATP tour match win. He then beat Félix Auger-Aliassime and Carlos Alcaraz to reach the final where he won his fifth title of the year and 18th overall, defeating Frances Tiafoe in straight sets.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev was the fourth seed at the 2021 Rolex Paris Masters. He received a bye into the second round, where he defeated Dušan Lajović. He defeated next sixteenth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the third round and sixth seed Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals. He lost in the semifinals to second seed Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. As a result of this run he equaled his singles career-high ranking of World No. 3 on 8 November 2021.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: For a fifth successive season, Zverev qualified for the 2021 ATP Finals in Turin, as the third seed. He began his campaign begin by defeating home favourite Matteo Berrettini who retired with an injury. On his way to the title he defeated the top two seeds Djokovic and Medvedev in the semifinals and finals respectively. Due to this win, he became the only player active to have won multiple ATP Finals titles (2) other than Djokovic and Roger Federer, with 5 and 6, respectively.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev played in the 2022 Australian Open, where he reached the fourth round, being defeated by fourteenth seed, Denis Shapovalov.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In the 2022 Acapulco Open, Zverev played in what was the record latest match ever played, defeating Jenson Brooksby at 4:55 A.M. He was then defaulted from the tournament ahead of his following match against Peter Gojowczyk for violently and repeatedly hitting the umpire's chair with his racket after his loss in doubles.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: He lost his first match at the Indian Wells Masters in singles against Tommy Paul but reached the semifinals in doubles with Andrey Golubev. At the 2022 Miami Open, he lost in the quarterfinals to Casper Ruud.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: He improved his performance at the 2022 Monte-Carlo Masters by reaching the semifinals defeating Jannik Sinner before losing to eventual champion Stefanos Tsitsipas.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the 2022 Mutua Madrid Open he returned to defend his title. He reached the semifinals with a straight set win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals, after a tough three sets match win over Marin Cilic in the second round and Lorenzo Musetti's retirement in the third round. He took his revenge on Monte-Carlo champion and fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach his third final at this Masters. He improved his ATP Head2Head record to 4–7 against Tsitsipas, earning his first clay-court win against him in the process. In the final, he was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz. At the 2022 Italian Open, he reached the semifinals, defeating Christian Garin to face Tsitsipas again for the third consecutive time at this Masters level in the clay court season. He lost in the semifinals to Tsitsipas. They were the only players to reach the semifinals at all three Masters 1000 tournaments on clay in the season.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: At the French Open, Zverev matched his semifinal result from the previous year, defeating Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals in what was his first top-10 victory in a Grand Slam after 12 attempts. In his semifinal match against Rafael Nadal, he retired 3 hours and 13 minutes into the match after rolling his right ankle and tearing all three lateral ligaments. He was rolled off the court in a wheelchair. Zverev informed that the injury would cause him to miss the 2022 Wimbledon Championships and on 8 June 2022 underwent surgery to repair the torn ligaments in his ankle. Despite his exit at Roland Garros, he reached a career-high ranking of world No. 2 on 13 June 2022. He withdrew from the US Open in August as he recovered from the ankle injury.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In September, he was supposed to return for the Davis Cup play but suffered a new injury, a bone edema, and had to withdraw from competition for the rest of the season.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev took part in the inaugural Laver Cup in Prague in 2017. He accrued four points by winning both of his singles matches for Team Europe as they defeated Team World 15–9. He played a more crucial role in 2018 and 2019, winning the clinching matches in both editions against Kevin Anderson and Milos Raonic respectively. In the 2021 edition in Boston, he defeated John Isner in three sets in his only match in Team Europe's 14–1 win.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev made his Davis Cup debut for Germany against the Czech Republic in 2016. He faced No. 7 Tomáš Berdych in his debut match and took a two sets to one lead before ultimately losing in five sets. After the Czech Republic won the doubles rubber while Kohlschreiber won both singles matches, Zverev faced Lukáš Rosol in a decisive fifth rubber. Rosol won the match easily to send the Czech Republic into the next round. In the 2017 against Belgium, Zverev recorded his first career match win in the competition against Arthur De Greef, but lost the doubles rubber with his brother as well as his second singles match to Steve Darcis. Belgium won the tie 4–1. Zverev won his first Davis Cup tie in 2018, winning both of his singles matches against Alex de Minaur and Kyrgios to lead Germany to a 3–1 victory over Australia. In the quarterfinals, Germany took a 2–1 lead against Spain behind Zverev's win over David Ferrer and a victory in doubles. However, Spain ultimately won the tie on the final day after Zverev was unable to defeat Nadal and Kohlschreiber lost a tight five-set match to Ferrer.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In 2019, the format of the Davis Cup was changed to have eighteen countries competing in the finals over a single week in November, all but six of which were decided through a qualifying round in February. Germany was placed in the qualifying round and drawn against Hungary. Zverev participated and won both of his singles matches as Germany won the tie 5–0. He did not participate in the finals in November, in which Germany lost in the quarterfinals.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev represented Germany at the Hopman Cup for four consecutive years from 2016 through 2019 with three different partners. In 2016, he competed with Sabine Lisicki. The duo won their tie against the French team, with Zverev winning both his singles and mixed doubles matches. However, they were shut out against Great Britain and Australia Green and did not advance to the final. The following year, he entered the competition with Andrea Petkovic. While the pair only won their tie against Great Britain, Zverev also defeated Federer in singles in his first tournament back from injury.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev had much more success in 2018 and 2019 when he paired up with Angelique Kerber. In their first year together, they were able to advance to the final, primarily on the strength of the pair winning all three of their mixed doubles matches. In the final against Switzerland, Zverev lost his singles match to Federer. Although Kerber won her singles match against Belinda Bencic, they lost the decisive mixed doubles rubber. They returned in 2019 and again reached the final to set up a rematch of the previous year's final with Federer and Bencic. In a round-robin group with Australia, France, and Spain, the two of them won all six of their singles matches, but lost two of their three mixed doubles matches against Australia and France. Like the previous year, the final was decided by the mixed doubles match after Federer defeated Zverev and Kerber defeated Bencic. With the Fast4 format, the match went to three sets. In the third set tiebreak, both teams had a match point at 4–4. Switzerland won the point with Federer serving to win the title.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev represented Germany at the ATP Cup in 2020 and 2021. At the debut of this tournament in 2020, he was on the team with Jan-Lennard Struff, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies. In the group stage, where Germany met Australia, Canada and Greece, Zverev lost all three matches to Alex de Minaur, Denis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas respectively. Germany did not advance to the next phase of the tournament, finishing third in the group.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In 2021, Germany played again with the same lineup as the previous year. In the group they played against Canada and Serbia. Zverev won his first match against Denis Shapovalov. In their second meeting, he lost in singles to Novak Djokovic, but still played against him and Nikola Ćaćić in doubles while paired with Jan-Lennard Struff. Germany won that meeting, which allowed them to advance from first place in the group to the semifinals. There they ended up against Russia, where Zverev lost his match to Daniil Medvedev. Germany eventually lost that game 2–1, allowing Russia to advance to the final.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev is an aggressive baseliner. He often stands way back behind the baseline and aims to hit powerful groundstrokes either for winners or to wear down his opponent. Although his height slows him down on the court, it also adds to his reach and gives him the ability to get more balls back in play. Novak Djokovic has commented, "He moves well for his height." Zverev can generate a lot of power with both his backhand and forehand. His backhand, in particular, is regarded as his strength and one of the best in the game. He uses a semi-open stance and employs a western grip on his forehand. He has a continental-eastern grip on his backhand. Zverev can also slice his backhands that require a low center of gravity, despite his height.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: With Zverev's height of , he can generate big serves at or faster at sharper angles than shorter players. The year Zverev first broke into the top 20, he was still not one of the better servers on tour, ranking just 38th in serve rating. This was well behind him ranking 18th in return rating, showing that his return game was much stronger than his serving. By 2018, he had improved in both categories, ranking 19th in serve rating and 8th in return rating. Zverev excels in particular at hitting a high percentage of first serves in, landing 64.2% in 2018. In his return game, he had the fifth highest percentage of first serve points won that year at 32.4%. His second serve is much more shaky and exploitable. Zverev hit the most double faults hit on tour in 2016 and 2020.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev is an all-court player and does not aim to be better on any surface in particular. He has said, "I feel like I can play on all surfaces. I’ve been to two finals or won tournaments on every single surface. I don’t feel like I have to focus on one... I feel like I have good chances at all of them." Toni Nadal, the uncle and coach of Rafael Nadal, has praised his ability on hard courts in particular, saying, "His best surface is, in my eyes, the hard court, because he moves better than he does on clay." Six of Zverev's first ten titles came on hard courts, while the other four were on clay. As of 2020, he has yet to win a title on grass, but has reached two finals and also defeated Federer on that surface.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev has the ability to serve-and-volley as well. His older brother Mischa is regarded as the biggest proponent of this playing style on the modern tour. Although Sascha does not employ this technique as often as his brother, he has shown it can be effective in big matches such as the Madrid Masters final against Dominic Thiem, a player who rarely comes to the net. Zverev's volleying technique is regarded as one of his biggest weaknesses.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev was tall, but skinny and not very muscular when growing up. His fitness trainer Jez Green has focused on making him stronger and set a goal for him to add of muscle each year. Initially, Zverev had difficulty adjusting to this training style on the court, saying, "I had no idea what was going on in my body," and needed to adapt his shot technique as he became more muscular. Eventually, he improved on the court. Green remarked, "He started to become less wobbly. He started to absorb the power, so when someone hit hard he could hit the ball back and everything locked into place."


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev has been coached by his parents since he was very young. His mother was initially his primary coach before his father took over at some point. Zverev made the decision to hire former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Washington Open in the summer of 2017. He fired Ferrero following the 2018 Australian Open after Ferrero criticized the rest of Zverev's coaching team. Ivan Lendl, another former world No. 1, joined Zverev's team in August 2018. They split up in July 2019 due to disappointing results and personal differences. Zverev has stated that Lendl was more interested in his dog or his golf game than in professional coaching. In 2020, Zverev started to work with former World Number 3 and 2013 French Open Finalist David Ferrer. They announced their split in January 2021.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's coaching team also includes physio Hugo Gravil. Fitness trainer Jez Green, who previously worked with Andy Murray, also worked with Zverev beginning 2013. Green departed Zverev's team in 2021 after working with him for around seven years.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev is known by the nickname "Sascha". He lives in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He grew up in Hamburg and also has spent his winters living in Florida at the Saddlebrook Academy since he was 12 years old. He can speak German, Russian, and English.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev's tennis idol is Roger Federer. Zverev plays other sports in his spare time such as basketball and golf. He is a fan of the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Zverev's best friend on the tour is Brazilian doubles specialist Marcelo Melo, a former French Open and Wimbledon champion.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: Zverev filed a lawsuit against the ACE Group International and its CEO Patricio Apey, accusing them of "unlawful restraint of trade." He argued that the contract between them was oppressive, but eventually agreed to settle the dispute out-of-court before the trial was to commence.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In October 2020, Zverev's ex-girlfriend Olga Sharypova, in an article in "Racquet" magazine by journalist Ben Rothenberg, accused Zverev of physically and emotionally abusing her over the course of their relationship. Sharypova named multiple instances where Zverev allegedly became violent towards her, including punching her in the face during an argument that took place in the pair's hotel room while Zverev was competing at the 2019 Laver Cup. Zverev denied the allegations and issued a statement after Sharypova's initial accusations: "I very much regret that she makes such statements. Because the accusations are simply not true." A second article by Rothenberg in "Slate" magazine about the allegations was released on 26 August 2021. At the end of August 2021, Zverev obtained a court injunction against Rothenberg in a Berlin-based defamation trial. Slate claimed that the injuction was obtained before the organisation had an opportunity to present evidence, and that they were appealing the decision.


title: Alexander Zverev

text: In October 2021, the ATP announced an investigation into the allegations against Zverev, saying in a statement "The allegations raised against Alexander Zverev are serious and we have a responsibility to address them". Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, confirmed in March 2022 that the investigation was still ongoing.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Travis Michael Kelce (; born October 5, 1989) is an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft and later won Super Bowl LIV with the team over the San Francisco 49ers. He played college football at Cincinnati. He is a seven-time Pro Bowler and a three-time first-team All-Pro selection. He holds the NFL record for most consecutive and most overall seasons with 1,000 yards receiving by a tight end with 7. He also owns the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season with 1,416 in 2020. He also briefly held the single season record in 2018 before it was broken later that same day. During the 2022 season, Kelce became the fastest tight end to reach 10,000 career receiving yards, and he became the fifth tight end in NFL history to reach the milestone. Kelce was named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Kelce was born on October 5, 1989, in Westlake, Ohio, the son of Ed Kelce and younger brother to fellow NFL player Jason Kelce, who is a center for the Philadelphia Eagles. He attended Cleveland Heights High School in his hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where he was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball. Excelling at football, he was a three-year letter winner as quarterback for the Tigers, and recognized with All-Lake Erie League honors after totaling 2,539 yards of total offense as a senior. He ran 1,016 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns, threw for 1,523 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, and eight interceptions in 2007.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Considered a two-star recruit by Rivals.com, Kelce accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Cincinnati over offers from Akron, Eastern Michigan, and Miami (OH). He joined his brother, Jason Kelce, who was the starting left guard for the Bearcats. After redshirting in 2008, he appeared in 11 games, playing at tight end and quarterback out of the Wildcat formation. He tallied eight rushes for 47 yards and two touchdowns along with one reception for three yards in 2009. The following season, he did not play due to a violation of team rules, which was later revealed to be failing a drug test by testing positive for marijuana. After serving a one-year suspension, Kelce was back with the team to start the 2011 season. For the season, he saw action in games as a tight end and recorded 13 catches totaling 150 yards and two touchdowns. In his last collegiate season, he set personal career highs in receptions (45), receiving yards (722), yards per receptions (16.0), and receiving touchdowns (8), he also earned first-team all-conference honors. In March 2013, Kelce was named winner of the College Football Performance Awards Tight End of the Year.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Kelce was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round (63rd pick overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft. The Chiefs had hired Andy Reid as their new head coach during the off-season. Reid was familiar with Kelce after he had drafted and coached his brother, Jason Kelce, during his time as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. On June 6, 2013, the Chiefs signed him to a four-year, $3.12 million rookie contract that also included a signing bonus of $703,304.


title: Travis Kelce

text: On October 12, Kelce was placed on injured reserve after having surgery on his knee. He only played a single snap on special teams in the team’s Week 2 game against the Dallas Cowboys.


title: Travis Kelce

text: During Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, Kelce recorded his first NFL touchdown on a 20-yard reception from quarterback Alex Smith. On November 30, he was fined $11,025 for "unsportsmanlike conduct" during a 29–16 loss to the Denver Broncos. Kelce made an inappropriate hand gesture and motion at the Broncos linebacker Von Miller. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid later called this "immature". In the next game against the Arizona Cardinals, Kelce had seven receptions for 110 yards for his first NFL game with over 100 receiving yards. In the regular-season finale against the San Diego Chargers, he had an offensive fumble recovery for a touchdown in the 19–7 victory. Kelce was the Chiefs leading receiver during the 2014 season, totaling 862 yards off 67 receptions.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Kelce began the 2015 season with his first NFL multiple touchdown game, with six receptions for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the 27–20 victory over the Houston Texans. It was his only 100+ yard game, but he had at least one reception in all 16 games, and was ranked a top-five tight end by ESPN. He started all 16 regular season games and recorded 72 catches for 875 yards and five touchdowns, earning his way to his first Pro Bowl. The Chiefs finished the regular season with an 11–5 record and made the playoffs. In his first NFL playoff game, Kelce had eight receptions for 128 yards in a 30–0 victory over the Texans. In the against the New England Patriots, Kelce had six receptions for 23 yards as the Chiefs lost 27–20. He was ranked 91st by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.


title: Travis Kelce

text: On January 29, 2016, Kelce signed a five-year, $46 million contract extension. He was ranked 91st by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.


title: Travis Kelce

text: During Week 8 against the Indianapolis Colts, Kelce had seven receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown. In the next game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was ejected after receiving two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after arguing with two referees over not having a pass interference penalty called. The second resulted from him sarcastically throwing his towel at field judge Mike Weatherford in a flagging motion due to being upset about the first penalty. He was later fined $24,309 for his outburst. During Week 13 against the Atlanta Falcons, he had eight receptions for 140 yards. In the next game, Kelce recorded 101 receiving yards against the Oakland Raiders, his fourth consecutive game topping 100. He joined Jimmy Graham and former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez as the only NFL tight ends ever to do so. In a Christmas Day win over the Denver Broncos, Kelce had career bests of 11 receptions for 160 yards and a career long 80-yard touchdown on a screen pass. He finished the season with career highs in yards (1,125) and receptions (85). His 1,125 receiving yards led the league among tight ends and his 85 receptions were second among tight ends behind Dennis Pitta of the Baltimore Ravens. Kelce's 634 yards after the catch also led all NFL tight ends. He was named as a starter in his second career Pro Bowl, held on December 20, 2016. He was also named First-team All-Pro. He was ranked 26th by his fellow players, and second among tight ends, on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017.


title: Travis Kelce

text: The Chiefs finished atop the AFC West with a 12–4 record and earned a first-round bye in the playoffs. In the against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kelce had five receptions for 77 yards in the 18–16 loss.


title: Travis Kelce

text: During Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles, Kelce had eight receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown in the 27–20 victory. After just one reception for one yard in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers, Kelce recorded seven receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown in Week 4 against the Washington Redskins followed by eight for 98 in Week 5 against the Houston Texans. During Week 8, Kelce had seven receptions for 133 yards to pass Zach Ertz as the NFL's leading tight end in both categories, along with a touchdown. During Week 13 against the New York Jets, Kelce opened the game with spectacular fashion, scoring two receiving touchdowns on 90 receiving yards in the first 2 minutes and 46 seconds of regulation. He finished the game with 94 receiving yards on four receptions in the 38–31 loss. On December 19, 2017, Kelce was named to his third straight Pro Bowl. Kelce finished the season with a career-high eight receiving touchdowns. He finished second among tight ends with 1,038 receiving yards, only trailing Gronkowski's 1,084 receiving yards. He was ranked 24th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Travis Kelce

text: The 10–6 Chiefs entered the of the playoffs against the Tennessee Titans, where Kelce finished with four receptions for 66 yards and a touchdown in the 21–22 defeat. He was not able to finish the game as he suffered a concussion in the first half on a hit to his helmet.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In the 2018 season, Kelce benefited from the rise of new quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who had an MVP season. After being held to a lone reception for six yards in the season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers, he rebounded with seven receptions for 106 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 2 road victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. In two of the next three games, he was able to reach 100 receiving yards against the San Francisco 49ers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He added 99 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 9 win over the Cleveland Browns, and went into the Week 12 bye with 10 receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown in an offensively-spectacular 54–51 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. In the Week 13 win over the Oakland Raiders, Kelce had career-bests of 12 receptions and 168 yards, including two short touchdowns in the first half. At this point, he was well on his way to an NFL record, but his production tapered off; over the final four weeks, Kelce averaged six receptions for 63.5 yards and had only one touchdown reception. In Week 17, Kelce indeed broke the NFL record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single season, but 49ers tight end George Kittle passed him to claim the record less than an hour later. Kelce ended the regular season at 10th in the NFL in receptions with 103 and receiving yards with 1,336, and sixth in receiving touchdowns with 10. He was named to the 2018 Pro Bowl and was named first-team All-Pro.


title: Travis Kelce

text: The Chiefs finished atop the AFC West with a 12–4 record and earned a first-round bye. In the against the Indianapolis Colts, he had seven receptions for 108 yards in the 31–13 victory. In the against the New England Patriots, he had three receptions for 23 yards and a receiving touchdown in the 37–31 overtime loss. He was ranked 21st by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Travis Kelce

text: During Week 2 against the Oakland Raiders, Kelce caught seven passes for 107 yards and a touchdown of the season as the Chiefs won by a score of 28–10. Despite injuries to quarterback Patrick Mahomes and just two touchdowns, at the midpoint of the season Kelce led all tight ends and Chiefs players in receiving yards with 604. During Week 11 against the Los Angeles Chargers on "Monday Night Football" in Mexico, Kelce caught seven passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in the 24–17 win. During Week 14 against the New England Patriots, Kelce caught seven passes for 66 yards and rushed the ball once for a one-yard touchdown during the 23–16 road victory. In the next game against the Denver Broncos, Kelce finished with 11 catches for 142 receiving yards as the Chiefs won 23–3. In the next game against the Chicago Bears on "Sunday Night Football", he caught eight passes for 74 yards and a touchdown in the 26–3 win. During the game, he became the fastest tight end in NFL history to record 500 career receptions.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Kelce finished the 2019 season with 97 receptions for 1,229 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns to go along with his one rushing touchdown. Kelce became the first tight end in NFL history to record four consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards. He was named to his fifth Pro Bowl for his 2019 season.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In the against the Houston Texans, the Chiefs began the game with a 24–0 deficit. The Chiefs would then go on a 51–7 run, including 41 unanswered points, to win 51–31. After a drop on third down on the Chiefs first drive that would have been a first down if it had been caught, Kelce caught 10 passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns (all in the second quarter) as he helped lead the Chiefs to their second consecutive conference championship game. In the against the Tennessee Titans, Kelce caught three passes for 30 yards during the 35–24 win. In Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers, Kelce caught six passes for 43 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown and had one carry for two rushing yards during the 31–20 win. He was ranked 18th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2020.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Following the release of long-time Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt in the offseason, Kelce became tied with Anthony Sherman and fellow 2013 draftee Eric Fisher as the longest tenured members of the Chiefs. On August 14, 2020, Kelce signed a four-year, $57 million contract extension with the Chiefs through the 2025 season. In Week 6, against the Buffalo Bills, he recorded two receiving touchdowns in the 26–17 victory. In Week 8 against the New York Jets, Kelce dunked the ball through the goal posts after scoring a touchdown, paying homage to former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez. He was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and was fined $12,500. In Week 9, against the Carolina Panthers, he had ten receptions for 159 receiving yards in the 33–31 victory.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In Week 11 against the Las Vegas Raiders on "Sunday Night Football", Kelce recorded eight catches for 127 yards including the game-winning touchdown during the 35–31 win.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In Week 13 against the Denver Broncos on "Sunday Night Football", Kelce recorded eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown during the 22–16 win. In the following game, he posted an identical statistical performance of eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins in a 33–27 victory. In Week 16, Kelce became the first tight end to have two 100-catch seasons. Kelce caught seven passes, giving him a career-high 105 for the season. Kelce set the single-season yardage record for a tight end with 1,416, topping the 1,377 yards posted by George Kittle in 2018. His yardage ranked second overall in the 2020 NFL season (behind Stefon Diggs' 1,535), while his total receptions ranked fifth in the NFL and second among tight ends (behind Darren Waller's 107). He was named to his sixth Pro Bowl and earned First-team All-Pro honors.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In the against the Cleveland Browns, Kelce recorded eight catches for 109 yards and a touchdown during the 22–17 win. In the against the Bills, Kelce recorded 13 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns in a 38–24 win to advance to Super Bowl LV. In the Super Bowl, despite Kelce catching 10 passes for 133 yards which set the record for most receiving yards by a tight end in a single Super Bowl, the Chiefs could not score a touchdown in the 31–9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was ranked fifth by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2021.


title: Travis Kelce

text: Following the release of longtime Chiefs left tackle Eric Fisher and retirement of longtime fullback Anthony Sherman in the offseason, Kelce became the longest-tenured member of the Chiefs. In the Chiefs second game of the season against the Baltimore Ravens, he become the fastest tight end in NFL history to record 8,000 career yards, surpassing Rob Gronkowski's record in 113 games. In the Chiefs week 15 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, he set a career high for receiving yards in a game with 191 yards. He also caught two touchdowns, including the game-winning 34-yard touchdown in overtime. He was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance. The game also put him over 1,000 yards for the season, his NFL record (among tight ends) extending sixth consecutive 1,000 yard season. It also extended his record for most 1,000 yard seasons by a tight end with six. He was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list on December 20, 2021. He was activated on December 25, 2021. However, due to NFL protocols for COVID-19, since he tested positive for the virus and did not test negative before the day of the game, he was ruled out for the Chiefs Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was the first game he's missed due to injury or illness since his rookie season. In the regular season-ending game against the Denver Broncos, Kelce became the fastest tight end in NFL history to reach 9,000 career yards in just 127 games, a record also previously held by Gronkowski with 140 games. He finished the season with 92 receptions for 1,125 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. He was named Second-Team All-Pro by the AP, his sixth overall All-Pro selection. He was also named to his seventh consecutive Pro Bowl.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In the against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Kelce had five receptions for 108 yards and a receiving touchdown to go along with a two-yard touchdown pass to Byron Pringle in the 42–21 victory. In the Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills, he had eight receptions for 96 yards and the game-winning touchdown in the 42–36 overtime victory. In the against the Cincinnati Bengals, he had 10 receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown in the 27–24 overtime loss.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In Week 5, Kelce had four receiving touchdowns in the 30–29 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Kelce tied the franchise record for receiving touchdowns in a game. In the Chiefs week 11 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, he recorded his NFL record breaking (among tight ends) 33rd 100-yard receiving game with 115 yards. He also scored three touchdowns, including the game winning touchdown, his second straight season recording a game winning touchdown against the Chargers. In week 14 against the Denver Broncos, he became the fifth tight end in NFL history to have 10,000 receiving yards. He also officially recorded his seventh consecutive 1,000 yard season, extending his records (among tight ends) of consecutive 1,000 yard seasons and most overall 1,000 seasons.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In January 2016, Kelce starred in the E! Entertainment Television dating show "Catching Kelce". The winner picked by Kelce was Maya Benberry, and they started dating after the show ended in April 2016. In January 2017, Benberry confirmed that they had broken up. In May 2017, Kelce was confirmed to be in a relationship with social media influencer Kayla Nicole.


title: Travis Kelce

text: In 2015, Kelce started the "Eighty-Seven & Running" foundation to give mentoring, training, motivation, and opportunities to underprivileged youth.


title: Travis Kelce

text: During the 2021 offseason, Kelce said he pronounces his last name , because that is the way his father pronounces it, although the rest of the paternal side of his family pronounces it . Kelce's brother, Jason, later elaborated that their father "at some point ... got tired of correcting everyone calling him 'Kell-see.' ... And now I think we're both at the point where we're riding with Ed 'Kell-see.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred on 10–11 May 1996 when eight climbers caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest while attempting to descend from the summit. Over the entire season, 12 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest season on Mount Everest at the time and the third deadliest after the 22 fatalities resulting from avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 16 fatalities of the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche. The 1996 disaster received widespread publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Numerous climbers were at a high altitude on Everest during the storm including the Adventure Consultants team, led by Rob Hall, and the Mountain Madness team, led by Scott Fischer. While climbers died on both the North Face and South Col approaches, the events on the latter were more widely reported. Four members of the Adventure Consultants expedition died, including Hall, while Fischer was the sole casualty of the Mountain Madness expedition. Three officers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police also died.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Following the disaster, several survivors wrote memoirs. Journalist Jon Krakauer, on assignment from "Outside" magazine and on the Adventure Consultants team, published "Into Thin Air" (1997) which became a bestseller. Anatoli Boukreev, a guide in the Mountain Madness team, felt impugned by the book and co-authored a rebuttal called "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest" (1997). Beck Weathers, of Hall's expedition, and Lene Gammelgaard, of Fischer's expedition, wrote about their experiences in their respective books, "Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest" (2000) and "Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy" (2000). In 2014, Lou Kasischke, also of Hall's expedition, published his own account in "After the Wind: 1996 Everest Tragedy, One Survivor's Story".


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: In addition to the members of the Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness teams, Mike Trueman, who coordinated the rescue from Base Camp, contributed "The Storms: Adventure and Tragedy on Everest" (2015). Graham Ratcliffe, who climbed to the South Col of Everest on 10 May, noted in "A Day to Die For" (2011) that weather reports forecasting a major storm developing after 8 May and peaking in intensity on 11 May were delivered to expedition leaders. Hall and Fischer received these before their planned summit attempts on 10 May. Some of their teams summited Everest during an apparent break in this developing storm only to descend into the full force of it late on 10 May.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The following is a list of climbers en route to the summit on 10 May 1996 via the South Col and Southeast Ridge, organized by expedition and role. All ages are as of 1996.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The Adventure Consultants' 1996 Everest expedition, led by Rob Hall, consisted of 19 individuals, including eight clients.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The Sherpas listed above were the climbing Sherpas hired by Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants. There were many other Sherpas working at lower elevations who performed duties vital to the Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness expeditions. Most climbing Sherpas' duties require them to ascend at least as high as Camp III or IV, but not all of them summit. The expedition leaders intend for only a select few of their climbing Sherpas to summit. Legendary "Sardar" Apa Sherpa was scheduled to accompany the Adventure Consultants group but withdrew due to family commitments.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: With the exception of Namba, none of the clients on Hall's team had ever reached the summit of an 8,000-meter peak, and only Fischbeck, Hansen, and Hutchison had previous high-altitude Himalayan experience. Hall had also brokered a deal with "Outside" magazine for advertising space in exchange for a story about the growing popularity of commercial expeditions to Everest. Krakauer was originally slated to climb with Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness team, but Hall landed him, at least in part, by agreeing to reduce "Outside"s fee for Krakauer's spot on the expedition to less than cost. As a result, Hall was paying out-of-pocket to have Krakauer on his team.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The Mountain Madness 1996 Everest expedition, led by Scott Fischer, consisted of 19 individuals, including 8 clients.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Pete Schoening had decided, while still at Base Camp (), not to make the final push to the summit. The team began the assault on the summit on 6 May, bypassing Camp I () and stopping at Camp II () for two nights. However, Kruse suffered from altitude sickness and possible high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and stopped at Camp I. Fischer descended from Camp II and escorted Kruse back to Base Camp for treatment.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: On 9 June 1996, three days after Sherpa Ngawang Topche died in hospital from high-altitude pulmonary edema, a private memorial service was held for Scott Fischer attended by the climbers and sherpas from Mountain Madness at Kiana Lodge, near Seattle Washington. The Sherpa chanted a Buddhist prayer, Beidleman gifted his late friend's engraved expedition knife to Fischer's two children, and Jeannie Price, Fischer's wife, released a cloud of butterflies.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The previous day (9 May), Taiwanese team member Chen Yu-Nan had died following a fall on the Lhotse Face.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Half of the climbing team from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police North Col expedition from India (Subedar Tsewang Samanla, Lance Naik Dorje Morup, and Head Constable Tsewang Paljor) died on the Northeast Ridge.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Shortly after midnight on 10 May 1996, the Adventure Consultants expedition began a summit attempt from Camp IV, atop the South Col (). They were joined by six client climbers, three guides, and Sherpas from Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness company, as well as an expedition sponsored by the government of Taiwan.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The expeditions quickly encountered delays. The climbing Sherpas and guides had not set the fixed ropes by the time the team reached the Balcony (), and this cost the climbers almost an hour. There is some question as to the cause of this failure, which cannot now be resolved as the expedition leaders perished.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Upon reaching the Hillary Step (), the climbers again discovered that no fixed line had been placed, and they were forced to wait an hour while the guides installed the ropes. Because some 33 climbers were attempting the summit on the same day, and Hall and Fischer had asked their climbers to stay within of each other, there was a bottleneck at the single fixed line at the Hillary Step. Hutchison, Kasischke, and Taske returned towards Camp IV as they feared they would run out of supplementary oxygen due to the delays.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Climbing without supplemental oxygen, guide Anatoli Boukreev from the Mountain Madness team was the first to reach the summit (), at 13:07. Many of the climbers had not yet reached the summit by 14:00, the last safe time to turn around to reach Camp IV before nightfall.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Boukreev began his descent to Camp IV at 14:30, having spent nearly 1.5 hours at or near the summit helping others complete the climb. By that time, Hall, Krakauer, Harris, Beidleman, Namba, and Mountain Madness clients Martin Adams and Klev Schoening had reached the summit, and the remaining four Mountain Madness clients had arrived. After this time, Krakauer noted that the weather did not look so benign. At 15:00, snow started to fall, and the light was diminishing.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Hall's Sirdar, Ang Dorje Sherpa, and other climbing Sherpas waited at the summit for the clients. Near 15:00, they began their descent. On the way down, Ang Dorje encountered client Doug Hansen above the Hillary Step and ordered him to descend. Hansen did not respond verbally, but shook his head and pointed upward, toward the summit. When Hall arrived at the scene, the Sherpas offered to take Hansen to the summit, but Hall sent the Sherpas down to assist the other clients, and instructed them to stash oxygen canisters on the route. Hall said he would remain to help Hansen, who had run out of supplementary oxygen.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Scott Fischer did not summit until 15:45. He was exhausted from the ascent and becoming increasingly ill, possibly suffering from HAPE, HACE, or a combination of both. Others, including Doug Hansen and Makalu Gau, reached the summit even later.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Boukreev recorded that he reached Camp IV by 17:00. The reasons for Boukreev's decision to descend ahead of his clients are disputed. Boukreev maintained that he wanted to be ready to assist struggling clients farther down the slope, and to retrieve hot tea and extra oxygen if necessary. Krakauer sharply criticized Boukreev's decision not to use bottled oxygen while employed as a guide. Boukreev's supporters, who include G. Weston DeWalt, co-author of "The Climb" (1997), state that using bottled oxygen gives a false sense of security. Krakauer and his supporters point out that, without bottled oxygen, Boukreev was unable to directly help his clients descend, and that Boukreev said that he was going down with client Martin Adams, but later descended faster and left Adams behind.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: The worsening weather began causing difficulties for the descending team members. The blizzard on the southwest face of Everest was reducing visibility, burying the fixed ropes, and obliterating the trail back to Camp IV that the teams had broken on the ascent. Fischer, helped by Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa, was unable to descend below the Balcony () in the storm. Sherpas left Makalu Gau (at by Gau's account) with Fischer and Lopsang when Gau, too, became unable to proceed. Eventually, Lopsang was persuaded by Fischer to descend and leave him and Gau.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Hall radioed for help, saying that Hansen had fallen unconscious but was still alive. At 17:30, Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris, carrying supplementary oxygen and water, began climbing alone from the South Summit () toward Hansen and Hall at the top of Hillary Step. Krakauer's account notes that by this time, the weather had deteriorated into a full-scale blizzard: "Snow pellets borne on winds stung my face." Boukreev gives 18:00 as "the onset of a blizzard".


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Several climbers got lost on the South Col during the storm. Mountain Madness guide Beidleman and clients Klev Schoening, Fox, Madsen, Pittman, and Gammelgaard, along with Adventure Consultant guide Mike Groom and clients Beck Weathers and Yasuko Namba wandered in the blizzard until they could no longer walk, huddling some from a drop-off of the Kangshung Face.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Near midnight, the blizzard cleared sufficiently for the team to see Camp IV, some away. Beidleman, Groom, Schoening, and Gammelgaard set off to find help. Madsen and Fox remained on the mountain with the group in order to shout for the rescuers. Boukreev located the climbers and brought Pittman, Fox, and Madsen to safety. Boukreev had prioritized Pittman, Fox, and Madsen (all of whom were from his Mountain Madness expedition) over Namba (from the Adventure Consultants expedition), who seemed close to death; he did not see Weathers (also from the Adventure Consultants expedition). All of the climbers then at Camp IV were exhausted and unable to reach Namba and Weathers.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: In the early morning of 11 May, at 04:43, Hall radioed Base Camp and said he was on the South Summit (), indicating that he had survived the night. He reported that Harris had reached the two men, but Hansen, who had been with him since the previous afternoon, was now "gone", and Harris was missing. Hall was not breathing bottled oxygen because his regulator was too choked with ice.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: By 09:00, Hall had fixed his oxygen mask but indicated that his frostbitten hands and feet were making it difficult to traverse the fixed ropes. Later in the afternoon, he radioed Base Camp, asking them to call his pregnant wife, Jan Arnold, on the satellite phone. During this last communication, they chose a name for their unborn child, he reassured her that he was reasonably comfortable, and told her, "Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much." Shortly thereafter, he froze to death in his sleep. His body was found on 23 May by Ed Viesturs and fellow mountaineers from the IMAX expedition, but was left there as requested by his wife, who said she thought he was "where he'd liked to have stayed". They did, however, bring her back his wedding band. The bodies of Doug Hansen and Andy Harris have never been found. Viesturs stated in the IMAX film that upon finding Hall's body, he sat down and cried beside his friend.


title: 1996 Mount Everest disaster

text: Meanwhile, Stuart Hutchison, a client on Hall's team who had turned around before the summit on 10 May, launched a second search for Weathers and Namba. He found both alive, but barely responsive and severely frostbitten, and in no condition to move. After consulting with Lopsang, he made the decision that they could not be saved by the hypoxic survivors at Camp IV nor evacuated in time; the other survivors soon agreed that leaving Weathers and Namba behind was the only choice.