French Open final: Alexander Zverev defeats Flavio Cobolli for first Grand Slam title

PARIS – Alexander Zverev defeated Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 in the French Open final at Stade Roland-Garros on Sunday.

The No. 2 seed prevailed over the No. 10 seed in an edgy, tight match, ultimately decided by Zverev’s superiority on serve, Cobolli’s inability to maintain a winning tactic and Zverev’s ability to hang in as his physicality faded.

It is Zverev’s first Grand Slam singles title, on his fourth attempt.

Why did Zverev win the fifth set?

As they went to a fifth set, logic held that Cobolli had the momentum and Zverev had been knocked onto his heels.

Instead, something like the opposite happened.

Zverev was playing his third fifth set in a Grand Slam final. He’d been there before. But he didn’t play like it. Instead of seizing the initiative, Zverev appeared physically done.

Cobolli seemed to have spent his last great shot by winning the fourth-set tiebreak with a forehand blitz down the line.

Zverev was there for the taking. His forehands were looping and tentative. But Cobolli couldn’t find the court the way he had been just a few minutes before, and the thoughtfulness that went into all those deep, topspin off-speed shots to force this match to a decider evaporated.

He tried to blitz forehands when he needed to loop them. He pushed a backhand deep at 30-40, when a re-drop shot would have won the point, and Zverev fired it past him. He hit too many backhands in general, feeding Zverev’s strength with largely ineffective balls just when the German was wavering.

Down 3-0, Cobolli chased down a drop shot with the chance to recover a service break. With the opportunity to hit the ball past Zverev, he chose to dink it over him. Zverev ran back and retrieved it, giving Cobolli an overhead to put away.

The Italian couldn’t find the right spot, and Zverev chased it down, asking Cobolli to hit a second overhead. As he jumped toward the baseline, he could only send it into the net, when he had the opportunity to let the ball bounce.

Zverev would give him another chance, double-faulting on the next point, but when Cobolli worked the point around to another overhead, he bounced it into the seats.

Two points later, Zverev was in command at 4-0 and sailing to the finish. Another missed overhead that Cobolli could have let bounce was a fitting way to end proceedings.

How did he tighten up in the fourth?

Up two sets to one, Zverev was back in the position he found himself two years ago against Carlos Alcaraz.

He couldn’t get the job done then, but looked to be in a much more commanding position here, against a far less accomplished opponent.

And yet Zverev dropped his serve at the start of the fourth set, and then having broken back for 3-3, netted a dreadful volley to be broken again immediately. It brought back memories of a similarly nervy missed volley into the net during the fifth set of that 2024 final against Alcaraz.

From 15-30 on Cobolli’s serve in the next game, Zverev missed three backhands he’d normally make with his eyes closed, to let Cobolli off the hook again.

Eventually, Zverev was able to get the break back, hitting a forehand and then backhand winner for 5-5 with aggressiveness that came from his physicality starting to fade. Cobolli, who was serving for the set, suddenly seemed to be the one feeling the scoreboard pressure, while Zverev loosened and started hitting out.

Having been on the brink of a decider, Zverev was two games away from the title. Would he be as tight as he’d been for so much of the rest of the set? A missed smash when serving at 5-5 didn’t augur well, but an ace secured the hold.

On the other side of the net, Cobolli was learning that players don’t always have to be great in a Grand Slam final. They just have to be better than their opponent.

That was Cobolli in the fourth set, at least over the first 10 games. His first-serve percentage remained below 50%. He had more unforced errors than Zverev, at 14-12. But Zverev’s dips were even more dramatic. His serve efficiency dropped like a stone. He was winning only half his points on first serve.

Cobolli was staying in the rallies until he saw something that looked like an opening, then shooting through it. Until Zverev decided he’d had enough down 5-4, with Cobolli trying to push matters to a fifth. Zverev didn’t have a great deal of trust in his forehand, but he crushed two to opposite corners that he will long remember, being brave as he hadn’t been for most of the fourth set. Then he got a backhand in his strike zone and slammed it down the line.

The scoreboard flipped to 5-5. He’d sent a message that less bad wasn’t going to cut it for Cobolli the rest of the way.

Cobolli took the lesson to heart. After holding serve to force a tiebreak, he produced a lovely backhand pass, two forehand winners and a drop shot winner. And then, after muffing one set point with a silly, flying volley attempt, Cobolli put his head back on straight.

Zverev, back on serve, played a timid first shot, but his second sent Cobolli on the run. Now, Cobolli really needed to find something. He did, with a forehand down the line to force the fifth set, in which he couldn’t quite repeat the trick.

What Zverev said

“I really hope that you end up holding one of these trophies,” Zverev said to Cobolli.

“I lost a Grand Slam final here two years ago, but it’s a happy end,” he said.

“I have probably the longest-lasting team of anybody in the world.”

What Cobolli said

“I was close, and I feel it. Now that you’ve achieved your dream, let me win next time,” Cobolli said in his on-court interview.

“I felt a little pressure on my side.”

“I never expected this kind of result. But now that I’m here, I just want to make possible something special, because for me, it’s not done, it’s only the start, and I’m still young, so I just want to enjoy every moment that I spend on court. With my smile.”