Zverev is finally a Grand Slam winner.
Alexander Zverev is a Grand Slam champion at last. The German beat Italy’s Flavio Cobolli in five sets at the French Open on Sunday. The final ended 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier. It was his first major in his fourth final.
The number that frames it all is 30. No German man had won a major since Boris Becker in 1996. Zverev was not yet born when Becker last lifted one.
His talent was never the debate. The question was whether he could close. On Sunday, after years of evidence to the contrary, he finally did.
Here are the takeaways that explain how it happened, and why it took so long.
1. The serve, once his great vulnerability, became the deciding weapon. Zverev double-faulted away big moments in the past, most painfully against Dominic Thiem in 2020. On Sunday he steadied it when it mattered, closing the fifth set 6-1. A reliable first serve changes how a baseliner controls a match. When it lands, he dictates the rally with his forehand. When it misses, free points and doubt creep back in. His forehand has matured alongside the serve, turning a former liability into a genuine weapon.
2. The draw opened, and in a Slam the bracket is part of the story. Carlos Alcaraz withdrew with a wrist injury. Jannik Sinner lost in the second round. Novak Djokovic fell in the third to teenager Joao Fonseca. Zverev did not duck anyone, but the toughest tier was gone early. He came through Jakub Mensik in the semifinals. Cobolli reached the final after upsetting Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals.
3. He resisted his oldest habit at the worst possible moment. Zverev has long retreated into a passive, wait-for-the-error mode under pressure. Cobolli, the No. 10 seed, used that to take the second and fourth sets. When cramps arrived in the fifth, the old Zverev might have folded. This time he stayed on the front foot and forced the issue. He kept pressing rather than waiting for Cobolli to miss.
4. Four finals of scar tissue finally gave way. His road here ran through three brutal defeats, each one a different kind of lesson.
| Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | US Open | Dominic Thiem | Lost in five sets |
| 2024 | French Open | Carlos Alcaraz | Lost |
| 2025 | Australian Open | Jannik Sinner | Lost |
| 2026 | French Open | Flavio Cobolli | Won in five sets |
“We have been through injury, heartbreaks, losses,” Zverev said on court. The tears on the clay told the rest of the story.
5. The fuller picture, on and off the court, still shapes how he is seen. Zverev remains a divisive figure. Two former partners have accused him of domestic abuse. An ATP investigation into the first claims closed in 2023 over insufficient evidence. A later court case ended in a 2024 settlement, with Zverev paying 200,000 euros. Per BBC Sport, the result was not a verdict or a finding of guilt. He has always denied wrongdoing.
What changes now is the weight. With the first major secured, the pressure that defined his career lifts. That matters more for a player who pressed too hard than for almost anyone else. The talent was always there. The missing piece was the belief that he could finish.
Wimbledon comes next, and grass rewards a serve like his. Do not be surprised if he runs deep there too. Winning the first major is always the hardest part.
“No matter what happens, I will always be a Grand Slam champion,” he said Sunday. For Zverev, that single sentence was more than a decade in the making.
