“My body left me on the court”: Flavio Cobolli’s first Grand Slam final undone by cramp
Betrayed by cramp in a fifth set he entered already spent, Flavio Cobolli lost the Roland-Garros final to his friend Alexander Zverev. At 23, in his first Grand Slam final, the Italian had no trouble conceding that the title belonged to the German.
Flavio Cobolli, Roland-Garros 2026 | © B. Autissier / PsNewz
Flavio Cobolli’s first Grand Slam final ended in physical surrender, the Italian’s body failing through a five-set defeat to his friend Alexander Zverev – but he left Court Philippe-Chatrier insisting the better man had won.
The decisive turn, Cobolli said, was muscular. “After the fourth set, in the tiebreak, I felt cramp in my calf,” he explained. He used the full five-minute break to recover, to no avail. “My calf was gone, and then after the second game, my quad as well. I felt completely tired, and my body left me on the court.”
Reaching the final via Matteo Arnaldi’s walkover, Cobolli had not played a competitive match in four days; against an opponent he felt was “fresher than me at the end,” the legs went first.
No one in this room expected this of me.
He was unstinting in crediting Zverev, who won his maiden major at the fourth attempt. “Congrats to Sasha for this title, I think he deserved it,” Cobolli said. “Sasha has been here ten years and made a lot of great results. I think he deserves a Grand Slam for what he’s done in his career.” Pressed on why he kept saying his friend deserved it more, his answer was simple: “Because at the end, he won.”
There was pride, too, in a fortnight no one had foreseen. “I never expected in all my life to become this kind of person, and I’m so proud of myself,” Cobolli said. “No one in this room expected this of me.” At 23, in his first final, he framed the loss as a beginning. “I’m still young, so I have to work a lot, enjoy this journey,” he said. “When you reach the first final — why not the second?”
