Alexander Zverev wins his first Grand Slam title in Paris

Zverev, who has often let his nerves get in the way in the past, was the winner after 4:16 hours and a missed smash by Cobolli on his second match point. At the age of 29, Zverev thus ended years of trembling. The brother and son of ex-professionals Mischa and Alexander Zverev Sr. had lost his first three Grand Slam finals since 2020. His greatest successes to date have been his two triumphs at the ATP Finals (2018, 2021) and his 2021 Olympic victory.

Zverev also looked blocked at times in his fourth Grand Slam final, but an average performance was enough for the clear favorite to win against Cobolli, who played too incorrectly throughout the match - not least because physical exhaustion ultimately forced him to play more offensively again and because Cobolli served him the break to 6:4 on a silver platter in the third set.

Zverev lived up to his role as favorite in the first Grand Slam final without the participation and victory of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz in two and a half years, although he fell back into old patterns. The first set, which Zverev opened with a break and had in the bag after just over half an hour, was still a clear-cut affair. After that, the German repeatedly became too passive again.

In his previous Grand Slam finals, Zverev lost to Dominic Thiem, Alcaraz and Sinner, as he did to Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl and Andy Murray. He let a 2:0 set lead slip against Thiem at the 2020 US Open and a 2:1 set lead against Alcaraz at the 2024 French Open.

Later than many experts expected, the 1.98 m tall athlete with the strong first serve and long reach became the third German Grand Slam winner in the Open Era after Boris Becker (80s and 90s) and Michael Stich (Wimbledon 1991). So far, only Gottfried Von Cramm and Henner Henkel, both Germans in the 1930s long before the professional era (from 1968), had triumphed at the French Open.

Cobolli, who had benefited from the withdrawal of his compatriot Matteo Arnaldi in the semi-final, started nervously and incorrectly in his first Grand Slam final. Although he improved and benefited from Zverev's weaknesses, the tightrope walk between risk and too much risk did not pay off overall. He also ran out of steam in the final set.

The 24-year-old Cobolli, who also played football ambitiously until the age of 14 and was a member of AS Roma's youth academy, can take comfort in the fact that he has broken into the top 10 of the world rankings for the first time. The new Italian number 2 behind world number one Jannik Sinner and ahead of the other top 20 players Lorenzo Musetti and Luciano Darderi improves from 14th to 10th place.