Alexander Zverev. Reuters photo
The 29-year-old had reached the finals three times before, but had never won. At the US Open-2020, he led 2-0 in sets and served for the title against Dominic Thiem, but lost. At Roland Garros-2024, he also led 2-1 in sets against Carlos Alcaraz, but was unable to take the match to victory. At the Australian Open-2025 he lost to Yannick Cinner without a chance.
At the same time, Alexander Zverev has enough other victories. He won the 2020 Olympics in singles, won the ATP final tournaments (where the top 8 tennis players play at the end of the season) in 2018 and 2021, has 25 Masters singles titles, etc.
Many skeptics argued that the Grand Slam tournaments Zverev is unlikely to conquer already. He is already 29 years old, and the young, but already titled and rarely losing Yannick Cinner and Carlos Alcaraz are alternately sitting on the tennis throne.
Reaching for the dream
But at the fourth attempt, Alexander Zverev won the Grand Slam final and realized his long-held dream. And thus became the first German to win the most prestigious title in men’s tennis since the transition to the current format.
In the Roland Garros2026 final, Zverev defeated world No. 14 Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5) and 6-1 in a hard-fought five-set match.
The tournament in Paris turned out as favorably as possible for Zverev. Last year’s winner Carlos Alcaraz, ranked number two in the world rankings, was unable to attend Roland Garros due to injury. The world number one Yannick Cinner, who had a crazy streak of 30 wins, unexpectedly lost in the second round match to Juan Manuel Serundolo.
And after Serbian Novak Djokovic’s third-round exit in the men’s set at Roland Garros, there were no tennis players left who had won Grand Slam tournaments. This markedly raised Zverev’s odds for the eventual victory.
He added to his account
And he took his chance. The victory in the tournament allowed the German first racket player to maintain and strengthen his position at the third line of the world ranking of tennis professionals.
For winning the Roland Garros final, Zverev earned 2.8 million euros. As a result, his total prize money this season amounted to $6.32 million, and for his entire career he earned $65.82 million and moved into fourth place among all tennis players in history. Only the “big three” – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – are ahead of him.
Alexander Zverev was born in 1997 into a family of Russian tennis players who emigrated from the USSR in 1991.
