“He’s my reference”: Cobolli on facing Zverev in Roland-Garros final
Flavio Cobolli describes Alexander Zverev as his “main point of reference” and a close friend, yet the two are set to clash in the Roland-Garros final. Discover how this unique friendship will navigate the intense rivalry on one of tennis’s biggest stages.
Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobolli, Munich 2026 | © Steffie Wunderl/DPA/SIPA
When Flavio Cobolli was asked to describe his bond with Alexander Zverev, twi days priori to the Roland-Garros final, he did not reach for the word “rival.” He reached for something closer to apprenticeship.
“He’s my main point of reference among the big names, apart from Jannik (Sinner) and Carlos (Alcaraz), obviously,” Cobolli said of the German. “With him, I can talk honestly, and it helps me a lot in the moments where he senses I need it.”
The friendship, he stressed, is not a practice-court acquaintance. “We talk about silly things too, not just serious ones. We’ve really clicked.” On the day of the semi-finals, Zverev’s brother handed Cobolli a Harry Kane football shirt.
Head to head
Zverev tells the same story from the other side, and traces it to its source: The Laver Cup, when they first met, Cobolli’s father. “Sometimes, when there were difficult moments, his father used to come up to me,” the German said. “He’d ask me questions, ask my father questions, about tennis and different things, and I was always very happy to talk to him. So that’s when it started, and with some people, it just continues.” Of Cobolli himself: “He’s a nice person, he has a good heart, and he’s extremely funny if you get to know him. Two very, very good people.”
The match record is less sentimental. Zverev leads their head-to-head 3-1, and has won the meetings that matter most – a Roland-Garros first-round in 2025, on this same clay, and a Madrid quarter-final on clay this spring, 6-1 6-4. Cobolli’s lone win came at the Munich semi-finals this season, 6-3 6-3. Sunday will be by far the biggest stage on which the reference has met the student.
He told me we’re friends, so I suppose that means I should let him have the match.
Both men found the same way to hold the contradiction. “That doesn’t change the fact that now we’ll be opponents,” Cobolli said. “There’s a lot of respect off the court, but precisely because of that, on court we’ll go to battle.” Zverev called sharing a final with a friend a privilege, not a problem: “It’s nice to share it. Of course you still try to beat each other, but that’s okay.”
The hardest part, for Cobolli, is what he knows: that Zverev, the finest player of his generation never to win a major, wants one above almost anything. “He’s always confided in me that he’d want to win a Grand Slam at all costs,” Cobolli said. “He told me we’re friends, so I suppose that means I should let him have the match.” He smiled at the impossibility. “That won’t happen. You have to switch your head off and think only about yourself for a couple of days.”
