French Open 2026: Alexander Zverev wins first Grand Slam title with victory over Flavio Cobolli

Zverev has been rumored to win one of the sport’s biggest prizes since he was a teenager, but his journey to a major trophy has taken longer than many expected.

As a precocious teenager, he caught the eye of experienced stars including Roger Federer while touring with his older brother Mischa, an Australian Open quarter-finalist in 2017.

With both of his parents playing professionally, young Zverev described himself as “born with a racket in my hand” and eventually became one of the world’s leading stars.

Zverev has been comfortably ranked in the top 10 for most of the last nine years and has faced little trouble winning the major ATP Tour titles.

But getting over the line at the Grand Slam was a different story.

His chances of winning the most prestigious trophies were initially disrupted by the presence of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and then the emergence of Sinner and Alcaraz.

Technical problems on his second serve and his tendency to play passively against the best also let him down.

After losing his first three Grand Slam finals, many wondered whether Zverev had missed the opportunity.

This probably wasn’t his last chance, but it was undoubtedly his best.

Zverev quickly calmed down, as Cobolli’s nerves showed, using his powerful groundstrokes to devastating effect in the first set, which lasted just 35 minutes.

After the second seed barely lost a service point at the start of the second set, Cobolli broke through with two double faults from Zverev to equalize at 4-3.

Zverev’s ability to bring greater momentum to key exchanges helped him break decisively in the 10th game of the third set, but nerves held in a dramatic fourth set.

Zverev admirably zeroed in on the decision before the emotion of what he had accomplished set in.