Photo credit: Tim Clayton/Getty
By Alix Ramsay
Redemption. It had been a lifetime in the making and six years in the waiting but Alexander Zverev had finally found redemption.
His 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 win over his friend, Flavio Cobolli, four hours and 15 minutes of tension and drama (and occasionally some decent tennis), earned the German the grand slam title he so desperately craved: he is the new champion of Roland-Garros. He was in tears and in heaven when it was all over.
Three previous finals had broken his heart. First Dominic Thiem wounded him terribly at the US Open in 2020. Zverev was two sets up; he served for the match in the fifth, he was two points from victory. And still he lost. That was crushing.
Then Carlos Alcaraz hurt him again in the Roland-Garros final two years ago and Jannik Sinner slapped him down in Australia last year. But, of course, there was the Roland-Garros semi-final in 2022 when he was squeezing Rafael Nadal until his pips squeaked only to fall and wreck his ankle to such a degree that he did not know if he would ever play again. It seemed that all that scar tissue would never heal.
Until Sunday evening.
It was a riveting final, mainly because it was a match of nerves. Of course, all finals are nervy affairs but for Zverev, this was a once in a career opportunity: there was neither Sinner nor Alcaraz standing between him and the silverware. In their place stood a 24-year-old who no one had ever imagined would be in such a position at this stage in his development. This was Zverev’s to lose – and he did not dare let that happen. Not again. The nerves were never far from the surface.
To precis the match: Zverev was dominant in the first set as Cobolli was felled by stage fright. Cobolli relaxed a little in the second set while the German’s nerves began to fray. We had a fight in the third set, one which Zverev’s power tennis won, while the tension (and the onset of cramp) tied Zverev up in knots in the fourth. And then, in the fifth, Cobolli was shattered – his legs had gone – and Zverev grabbed the momentum and never let it go. At last, a major title was his.
“I was just very tight today,” he said, admitting that he might have had a beverage or two before he addressed the media. “I honestly feel like I’ve managed the last two weeks extremely well, because with all the losses that happened early on with Jannik going out, with Novak going out, I managed to stay composed, I managed to stay calm in my mind, and I feel like I was playing really, really good tennis.
“But then today I feel like I didn’t manage so well. I feel like the match was a lot more up and down. I think the level was not as stable as the previous matches for me, and I was a lot more nervous, which at some stage is also human, I think.
“That’s why I say the cramps helped me in a way, because my mind let go. I started swinging more freely. I started hitting the ball a bit more aggressive. I couldn’t focus on being tight anymore. That’s why I played the fifth set the way I did.”
When it was over, he fell flat on his back and sobbed and the tears would not stop. He eventually got up to find Cobolli standing beside him to give him a huge hug. Once he had gone to celebrate – still tearfully – with his family and team, Zverev came back to the court and went to console Cobolli. This was a side of Zverev we have very rarely seen: truly and unabashedly happy yet still concerned for his pal. And then he started smiling and soaking it all in.
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
“When I was on the ground, all the emotions came out because, again, I think this court is very, very special to me,” he explained. “It’s special in a very positive way, but also special in a negative way, because I had some of the toughest moments of my life here, of my tennis career.
“I was laying on this court with an injury that I didn’t know if I will ever come back from. I lost a grand slam final here. All of those memories for me, they’re not wiped out. They’re still with me, but this one will beat all of them.”
The tears explained it all. This was redemption for a man who had worked, waited and suffered for year after year. At last, Zverev was a grand slam champion – and he did not care if he never won another major title – and he was happier than anyone on the tennis tour had ever seen him.
The previous day, Mirra Andreeva did as expected, beating the qualifier Maja Chwalinska 6-3, 6-2 to win and lift the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen.
It was anything but a classic: 25 minutes before anyone held serve – and that Chwalinska, the first of her two holds throughout the final.
But for Andreeva, it did not matter how the match was won. All she cared about was winning the final point and that she did after 83 minutes. All the work with Conchita Martinez had brought her to this point and the extra time she put in with Andy Murray’s former psychologist, Alexis Castorri, had pushed her over the line.
She fell to her knees, unsure whether to laugh or cry. She ran to her box and hugged everyone at least twice. At 19 years and 39 days, she was the youngest Roland-Garros women’s champion since Monica Seles in 1992, another impressive stat to add to her growing resume. This is what she had dreamed of since she was six years old.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve done a lot of visualizations before,” she said, beaming from ear to ear. “I would say that the feeling in real life is so much better, obviously, than in your dreams. Looking at this trophy and realizing that this is actually true and I can call myself a grand slam champion.”
Photo credit: Franco Arland/Getty
Tipped for great things since she was in her early teens, the Russian’s Achilles heel was always her temperament. When the going got tough, she had an unfortunate tendency to implode but Castorri seems to have found the key to controlling that. Long chats with her mentor before the final two rounds kept Andreeva in the zone and her title run on track.
“My psychologist gave me a lot of advices and a lot of techniques that I could try and use on the court to help myself to experience all of these things a little bit better and easier. That’s why, you know, I think that she deserves a lot of credit for this.”
As does Martinez. Her personal relationship with Andreeva is clearly affectionate and caring (sometimes she is like a mother hen around the teenage prodigy); her coaching relationship with her charge can be fraught.
“Sometimes in practice she can be a little bit difficult,” Martinez admitted. “Her attitude is difficult. You tell her something, and maybe she’s not open to listening and stuff like that.
“But this Roland-Garros, she was super focus, behaving super well on court, maintaining her composure. Yeah, I’m super proud of the work and how she was open to listening and to doing everything that is needed to win a grand slam. So I couldn’t be prouder.”
That pride meant the world to the new champion. “To hear those words from her is very, very special to me,” she said.
So now Wimbledon is beckoning and Andreeva cannot wait to get started. She may be a grand slam champion but she is still only 19 and like any kid with a new present, she wants another one. She likes this feeling and she wants more of the same.
“I feel like this thing is a little bit addicting, and I really want to do my best to experience all of this for the second time,” she said, cheerily.
Yes, of course you do Mirra. And you know how to do it now.