Zverev finally claims Grand Slam glory at Roland Garros after four-year journey

Four years to the day almost, Alexander Zverev walked off Court Philippe-Chatrier as a Grand Slam champion. The last time he left that same court, he was in a wheelchair, his right ankle shattered, his career hanging by a thread.

It was the 2022 French Open semi-final. Zverev was a set down against Rafael Nadal when he fell hard during a rally. Seven ligaments tore. Two bones fractured. The screaming was audible across the stadium. Surgery followed. Months of rehabilitation. The kind of injury that ends careers, or at least derails them for years. But on June 7, 2026—1,465 days later—Zverev defeated Italy's Flavio Cobolli in five sets to claim the Coupe des Mousquetaires, the trophy that had eluded him through three previous Grand Slam final defeats.

The weight of those near-misses cannot be overstated. At the 2020 US Open, Zverev held two sets and a 5-3 lead in the final set against Dominic Thiem, serving for the championship. He lost. In 2024, he led Carlos Alcaraz two sets to one in this very tournament before the Spaniard clawed back. Then came January 2025 and the Australian Open, where Jannik Sinner dismantled him so thoroughly that Zverev later described himself as mentally "empty." He had become the best player of his generation never to win a major—a distinction that carried real weight, real pain.

The 29-year-old's path to this title was smoothed by circumstance. Sinner, the top seed and heavy favorite, fell to a shock second-round loss. Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, withdrew with a wrist injury before the tournament even began. Djokovic, a three-time Paris champion, lost in the third round. When Zverev finally faced a top-25 player in Cobolli, the Italian was already his only serious obstacle remaining. It was, by any measure, his best chance. And he took it.

Cobolli fought back from a set down twice, forcing a fifth set. This was where the old Zverev—the one who had crumbled under pressure, who had struggled with his emotions on court—might have faltered again. Instead, he held. When it ended, he fell flat on his back in celebration, the weight of 1,465 days finally lifting.

"This court is so special to me in so many ways," Zverev said afterward. "I have had the best moments and the worst moment of my life on this court. I was laid in that corner 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 is a happy ending." He dedicated the victory to his team—his father, his brother, those who had walked with him through injury and heartbreak. Nadal, the man who had helped him off the court in 2022, was among the first to congratulate him on social media, calling the victory "so well deserved."

Yet Zverev's triumph arrives shadowed by his off-court history. In 2023, he was fined 450,000 euros for bodily harm against an ex-partner with whom he shares a child. He denied the allegations and objected to the penalty order, leading to a public trial in May 2024 that was discontinued after a week. The court made clear this was not a verdict on guilt or innocence. A separate settlement was reached. In 2020, another former girlfriend had accused him of physical violence and controlling behavior; he maintained his innocence, and no legal proceedings followed. These facts sit alongside his sporting redemption, neither erasing the other, both part of the record now.