Alcaraz has momentum entering the ATP Finals while Zverev aims to silence critics

Alexander Zverev won more of the big titles this year and has the No. 1 ranking. It’s Carlos Alcaraz, though, who goes to the ATP Finals as the player to beat.

That’s because Alcaraz, who missed 4 ½ months in the middle of the year due to a right wrist injury, has displayed the best form lately.

While Zverev arrives on a two-match losing streak, Alcaraz comes to Turin on a 10-match winning run after titles in Vienna and Paris and is hungry to raise the trophy at the Finals for the first time after losing to Jannik Sinner in last year’s final.

“This is a tournament that I really want to win one day,” Alcaraz said after beating Ben Shelton in the Paris Masters final last weekend.

“I’m going to go this year with a lot of confidence, with a lot of information in my bag to do the things that I really wanted to improve and be better in that tournament, and I’m going to go for it.”

The Finals, the season-ending event for the year’s top eight men’s players, starts on Sunday in Turin.

Sinner, the two-time defending champion, is sitting out after ending his season early due to a right knee injury.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Alcaraz struggled indoors.

“I have no experience playing on indoor courts,” Alcaraz said two years ago at the Finals as he failed to advance. “I’ll be a really good player on indoor courts, I’m sure about it. But I think it’s about time, about getting experience. ... A lot of players are better than me on indoor courts.”

Not anymore.

Alcaraz has dropped only one set during his 10-match winning streak indoors.

“Mentally tired athletes often run low on patience," Tennis Channel analyst and former No. 1 Jim Courier said in an email to The Associated Press. "Carlos is generally making better choices with his shot selection than a few years ago and his mental freshness, given the time away from tour due to injury this year, is also a factor."

Zverev has appeared mentally tired during his recent losses to Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti in Vienna and Paris, respectively.

And not just because it’s the end of the season.

“I feel like I’m the only world No. 1 in tennis history that has to explain why it’s OK for me to be world No. 1, which I find quite difficult, because I think I deserve to be where I am,” Zverev said after falling to Musetti in his Paris opener.

While Zverev claimed his first two Grand Slam titles this year and ascended to the No. 1 ranking for the first time, he’s faced continuous questions about earning the ranking after injuries to Alcaraz and Sinner.

Zverev added the criticism “is annoying, to be honest.”

A third career title for Zverev at the Finals — even better with a victory over Alcaraz — would go a long way toward quieting the questions.

Another player displaying top-level tennis at the end of the season is Shelton, who reached his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open.

The American beat Alcaraz in what was likely the match of the year during his run in New York, taking a fifth-set super tiebreaker to conclude a quarterfinal that ended at 3:33 a.m.

“It’s all about the little details. The difference in our match in the U.S. Open was the little details, and same (in Paris),” Shelton said after losing to Alcaraz in two close sets last weekend. “Especially on a super-fast surface like this, the margins are going to be small.”

One not so minor detail for Shelton is that he recently added Juan Carlos Ferrero — Alcaraz’s former coach — to his staff.

“Super hungry,” Shelton said, “and excited going into Turin.”

John McEnroe group: Alexander Zverev (1), Ben Shelton (3), Arthur Fils (6), Rafael Jodar (8).

Ivan Lendl group: Carlos Alcaraz (2), Daniil Medvedev (4), Flavio Cobolli (5), Frances Tiafoe (7).

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates winning a point against United States' Ben Shelton during the men's singles final match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament in Nanterre, outside Paris, France, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

United States' Ben Shelton reacts during the men's singles final match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament in Nanterre, outside Paris, France, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Alexander Zverev, of Germany, returns the ball against Lorenzo Musetti, of Italy, during their second-round match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament in Nanterre, near Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz celebrates after defeating United States' Ben Shelton during the men's singles final match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament in Nanterre, outside Paris, France, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

NEW YORK (AP) — At least eight people have died after a three-story building in Brooklyn collapsed at the edge of a construction site, New York City’s mayor said Thursday, as firefighters kept digging through the rubble to find others who may be trapped beneath the wreckage.

The building came down Wednesday afternoon. At least 17 people have been injured, including three firefighters, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.

“There are no words for a loss of this magnitude,” Mamdani posted on X. “My heart is with the families and loved ones of those we have lost, those who are injured and everyone grieving today.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Firefighters early Thursday removed the bodies of four more people who died after a three-story building in Brooklyn collapsed at the edge of a construction site, bringing the death toll to six, and they kept digging through the rubble to find others who may be trapped beneath the wreckage.

At least 17 people were hospitalized with injuries, including four in critical condition after the building came down Wednesday afternoon. The New York City Fire Department confirmed the additional deaths, and the other two deaths were announced Wednesday.

Scores of firefighters and police officers wielding pickaxes and power saws clambered over the rubble pile overnight, punching holes through the ruins to pull dust-covered people from beneath piles of twisted wood and brick.

Rescuers used dogs to sniff for survivors. Firefighters used orange buckets as they removed debris from the rubble piles trying to reach people who may be trapped.

“This has been an incredibly challenging and fast-moving situation, with precarious wreckage to navigate and dangerous voids beneath the surface,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference Wednesday. “This type of rescue is exactly what the FDNY trains for.”

Heavy rain was forecast for the city on Thursday afternoon. It wasn't immediately known how that would affect search efforts.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation, but New York City’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, noted that when the building fell, construction workers were excavating an empty lot next door for a new building.

Much of the rubble from the collapsed building — a mixed-use structure with apartments sitting atop ground-floor commercial space — wound up in a huge pile inside the construction pit. Another building that shared a wall with the collapsed structure remained standing, but its wall was shorn off, exposing the rooms inside, including a bedroom and closets filled with clothing.

About 250 firefighters were working the scene, Mamdani said.

On Wednesday night, firefighters pulled a woman — still alive and moving — out of a hole they had dug into the rubble pile, hoisting her up on a stretcher and rushing to a waiting ambulance. Additional people were pulled from beneath the pile as the night went on.

Seven of the casualties were children, authorities said, without specifying whether any were among the dead.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the rescue teams were performing “dangerous and perilous” work. “Every move is choreographed,” she said.

One firefighter sustained minor injuries, fire officials said.

Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Wednesday with the architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records as being associated with the construction project.

One resident of the collapsed building, Anderson Velez, told the New York Post he was at work when his wife called and said she and their two kids, ages 7 and 2, were trapped in the wreckage.

“She called me when the building collapsed while she was inside with rubble on top of her. She was screaming for someone to help get my son out and then the call cut off,” he said.

Velez said he later learned that his family had been pulled from the rubble alive.

Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this story.

First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

First responders rescue a person after a building collapsed after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

First responders rescue a person after a building collapsed after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)