By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS, June 7 (Reuters) - Alexander Zverev finally shattered the barrier between himself and Grand Slam glory by grinding down a stubborn
Flavio Cobolli 6-1 4-6 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1 in the French Open final on Sunday to lift his maiden major trophy at Roland Garros.
After falling three times at the final hurdle, including in Paris two years ago, Zverev capped a relentless run by becoming the first German man to win a major title since Boris Becker's Australian Open triumph three decades ago.
In a Paris fortnight during which Carlos Alcaraz was absent due to injury and Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic lost early to blow the draw wide open, the second seed embraced his new status as the hot favourite for the Musketeers' Cup and delivered.
"I want to congratulate Flavio. What an unbelievable two weeks, reaching your first Grand Slam final, and playing your first final like this," Zverev said in his on-court interview.
"From the bottom of my heart, I hope you lift this trophy very soon. You're one of the best people on tour.
"I really felt the crowd was pushing me throughout these two weeks and without you guys I wouldn't have won this tournament."
With the sun shining down on Court Philippe Chatrier, Zverev broke Cobolli with a backhand shot that pinged off the Italian's orange-framed racket, and he tightened his grip further to wrap up the opening set with a forehand winner down the middle.
Cobolli fired himself up and produced stunning shot-making to break in the seventh game of the next set and then drew level with a confident hold, as the centre court crowd whipped up a soccer-like atmosphere for the former AS Roma academy player.
Those voices soon fell silent deep in the third set as 10th seed Cobolli struck a forehand into the net to gift Zverev a set point, and the German promptly regained the advantage thanks to another unforced error.
A spell of passive play from Zverev meant that he was broken twice in the fourth set, but the German dialled up the intensity to go level at 5-5, only to crack under pressure in the tiebreak as Cobolli fired a forehand rocket to force a decider.
With the closing stages of the contest lacking the quality of last year's epic between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Zverev edged in front and used all his experience to finally earn his long-awaited crown.
Zverev dropped to the floor and sobbed, before dusting himself off to greet his close friend Cobolli and then soaked up the applause at a venue in which he has tasted joy and sorrow.
He left the 2022 tournament in a wheelchair after seriously injuring his ankle in the semi-finals against Rafa Nadal.
"This court is so special to me in so many ways," he added.
"Some of the best moments of my life have happened on this court, and some of the worst too. I sat here with seven broken bones four years ago, and I lost a final here."
Cobolli was left to rue a missed chance to return the Roland Garros men's title to Italy for the first time in 50 years after Adriano Panatta defeated American Harold Solomon in the 1976 title clash.
"It's not easy for me to talk right now, but I want to start with you, Ale," Cobolli said.
"If someone asked me who deserved this title more, I would always say you. It's been an honour, through our relationship, to share the court today.
"I'm happy for you, but I'm also sad, because I was close, and I feel it now. You achieved your dream.
"Let me win the next time."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar and Julien Pretot; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
