Mischa Zverev feels Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas constitute the "new top four"

Mischa Zverev believes Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the "new top four" of men's tennis. The German also asserted that his brother Alexander Zverev can get "even better" after claiming his second ATP Finals crown last week.

Djokovic, Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Tsitsipas secured the top four spots in the 2021 year-end ATP rankings - in that order.

Zverev defeated Djokovic in the semi-finals in Turin, before seeing off 2020 champion Medvedev in Sunday's final. Tsitsipas, the 2019 ATP Finals winner, was forced to withdraw from the event during the round-robin stage with an elbow injury.

In an interview with Eurosport, Mischa Zverev asserted that his brother has improved since his 2018 ATP Finals win, pointing to particular areas of the 24-year-old's game that have developed.

"Compared to his last ATP Finals victory in 2018, he plays better, more mature, more intelligent and more complete in the overall package," Mischa Zverev said. "He is the best Zverev there has been so far, but he can get even better. He has improved his volleys a lot, he also reads the game better, he knows when to attack or retreat."

The former World No. 25 also analyzed Alexander Zverev's performance and tactics in his 6-4, 6-4 win over Medvedev in Turin.

"The selection of his strokes has also got better and he's moving well, very intelligently, at the moment," Mischa Zverev continued. "Against Medvedev, he found an excellent balance and correctly assessed when he needed to move forward and play calmly. There were a lot of tempo changes in the game, but it was all controlled."

Mischa Zverev then outlined the players who make make up his "new top four", pointing to the uncertainty over Rafael Nadal's fitness as the reason for excluding the great Spaniard. Nadal, currently ranked World No. 6, cut his season short after the Citi Open in August due to a foot injury.

"Don't forget Tsitsipas, he was unbelievably strong for half the year," Mischa Zverev added. "I also believe that someone like [Andrey] Rublev can annoy the other players. We also have to wait and see how things go with Nadal in the coming year. Is he coming back or not? How does he play the clay court season? From my point of view, the new top four are Djokovic, Medvedev, Sascha [Zverev] and Tsitsipas. That's just my feeling; that can, of course, still change."

Alexander Zverev winning the ATP Finals twice indicates that a Grand Slam triumph is around the corner: Mischa Zverev

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h for a Grand Slam victory: Mischa Zverev

During the interview, Mischa Zverev also pointed to the fact Alexander Zverev has joined an elite list of players who have won the ATP Finals twice. The German suggested this should be indicative of a first Grand Slam title being on the horizon for his brother, given the Major champions in this group.

"Sascha is one of the 10 players who have become world champions (ATP Finals champions) more than once," Mischa Zverev said.

"This list includes players like [John] McEnroe, [Bjorn] Borg, [Boris] Becker and [Pete] Sampras. From a purely statistical point of view, it should be enough for a Grand Slam victory. I don't want to rely too much on the past, but rather see how Sascha can develop further in the future."