Alexander Zverev is now, finally, a Grand Slam champion. The German tennis player has won almost everything there is to win in tennis: a whopping 25 singles titles, including two ATP Finals and seven Masters 1,000 tournaments, as well as a Gold Olympic medal in Tokyo.
What he never won was a major title, losing in all his prior finals to Dominic Thiem (US Open 2020), Carlos Alcaraz (Roland Garros 2024), and Jannik Sinner (Australian Open 2025). Curiously, Andre Agassi also waited until his fourth final to win a Grand Slam, he ended up winning eight...
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Roland Garros 2026 was different: in a tournament without Alcaraz, with Sinner losing in second round and Djokovic in third round, pressure was high for Zverev: he was the natural favourite, but some thought it was the time for youngsters like Fonseca, Jódar, and Mensik. But the most unpredictable Grand Slam in ages ended up in the most logical way, and Zverev defeated Flavio Cobolli (who would have thought the 24-year-old Italian, ranked 14 in the world, with only 3 career titles and only one quarter-final appearance in a Grand Slam (Wimbledon 2025) would get this far?).
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Zverev had to work hard, fighting in five sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1, that makes him just the German to win Roland Garros since Henner Henkel... in 1937! And in the Open Era, since 1968, only two German won major titles before: Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open and Michael Stich at Wimbledon in 1991.