“At the end of the day, we’re Grand Slam champions”: Zverev wins his first major title at the fourth attempt, beating Cobolli in five sets at Roland-Garros
Alexander Zverev (No 2) beat Flavio Cobolli (No 10) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier, to win his first Grand Slam title at the fourth attempt, and the first major won by a German man since Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open.
Alexander Zverev, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Christophe Ena/AP/SIPA
Alexander Zverev is no longer the best tennis player never to have won a Grand Slam. The second seed of the Roland-Garros 2026 edition, the favourite after Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal and Jannik Sinner’s early exit, beat Italian 10th seed Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Sunday afternoon. It is his first Grand Slam title, won at the fourth attempt, and the first major won by a German man since Boris Becker lifted the Australian Open trophy in 1996.
The 29-year-old becomes the first German man to win Roland-Garros since Henner Henkel in 1937, and the first to do so in the Open Era. He is the third Open Era German man to win any Grand Slam, after Becker (six majors) and Michael Stich (Wimbledon 1991), and is the third man born in the 1990s to win a major, joining Dominic Thiem (2020 US Open) and Daniil Medvedev (2021 US Open). At 29 years and a handful of months, Zverev becomes the seventh-oldest man in tennis history to win his first major.
“We’ve been through so much…, Zverev said to his team during the trophy ceremony. “We’ve been through injuries, we’ve been through heartbreak, we’ve been through losses – we’ve been losers at times as well, in the most important moments. But at the end of the day, we’re Grand Slam champions.”
Zverev controlled it from the opening exchanges of the first set — Cobolli broken twice across an opening half-hour in which the Italian produced 16 unforced errors in seven games. The moment was larger than the player. The Italian found his rhythm in the second set. He broke Zverev once at 4-3 and served out a 6-4 to level the match. The third set ran on serve until 4-5, where Cobolli’s serve broke down and Zverev took the set 6-4.
Cobolli’s final shot
The fourth set was the moment the contest looked like it would be Zverev’s. The German served twice for the match, came within three points of the title in the fourth-set tie-break, and watched it slip away. Cobolli came back from 1-3 down in the breaker, switched to more aggressive ball-striking and intelligent use of the drop shot, and beat a visibly tiring Zverev 7-5 in the breaker to force a fifth set. By that point Zverev had begun to stretch and flex his legs between points and earn time here and there.
The fifth set was the resolution. Zverev opened it with two double faults in his first service game but held on, then broke Cobolli twice in the next three games to lead 3-0. He saved two break points on his own serve in the third game and added a third break to lead 4-0 before Cobolli finally held to break the run. Cobolli held to 4-1, Zverev to 5-1, and earned triple championship point on Cobolli’s serve. Cobolli’s final shot, a smash, who caused him many problems, sailed long. Zverev fell to the clay and broke into tears.
“If someone asks me who deserves this title more, I always say you”, Cobolli said during the final speech. “Now that you’ve achieved your dream, let me win the next time. For me it’s not done, it’s only the start. I’m still young.” “This court is so special to me in so many ways, Zverev added. “I’ve had the best moments of my life on these courts. I’ve had the worst moment of my life on these courts. I was playing on that corner over there four years ago with seven broken ligaments and two fractured bones. I lost a Grand Slam final here two years ago. But now finally it’s a happy end.”
The fourth attempt
It is the first tournament of any sort Zverev has won in more than a year. The closure on Court Philippe-Chatrier, where he had lost the 2024 final to Carlos Alcaraz from two sets to one up, was visible in everything from the moment he sat at his bench to the moment he walked into the family box to embrace his team. He had collapsed against Thiem at the 2020 US Open. He had been crushed in the closing two sets by Alcaraz here in 2024. He had been bulldozed by Jannik Sinner at the 2025 Australian Open. The fourth attempt was the one that delivered.
Zverev defeated Cobolli for the fifth time in five completed meetings at Roland-Garros – a head-to-head he now leads 4-1 overall in their careers. Cobolli, who had reached the final after Matteo Arnaldi withdrew with a viral illness, climbs into the world’s top 10 on Monday for the first time in his career. Zverev will not win a ranking place. But he has earned much more than that: he has achieved the goal of his life.
