Alexander Zverev reveals what he was thinking during match point in the Roland Garros final
Alexander Zverev ended his wait for a Grand Slam title by defeating Flavio Cobolli in the final of Roland Garros.
Zverev had lost three Grand Slam finals prior to his Roland Garros success and many had dubbed him one of the best players in tennis history not to win a major tournament.
The German took advantage of Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic’s early exits from the Paris Grand Slam and he was undoubtedly a worthy winner of the Roland Garros title.
He was, however, made to work for his maiden major by Cobolli, who took the World No. 3 to five sets in a frantic match on Philippe-Chatrier.
Just two days removed from Zverev’s biggest moment on a tennis court, he has revealed what he was thinking when he had three match points in the deciding set.
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In an interview with CNBC, the German responded: “Well, I had three match points and the first one you saved through a let cord and I was like, ‘Oh, here we go again. Something’s going to happen.’
“But then I won the second match point and you know, a lot of relief. I couldn’t believe that I won until I saw my box and my team celebrating, my father celebrating and then I realised, ‘Okay, we did it and we won we won the title’ and that’s when everything kind of sank in a little bit.
“It was just a moment of relief, a moment of joy, everything together. For the whole family, it means the world because that’s what we’ve been working on for 29 years pretty much. And to see him happy, to see him lift the Grand Slam trophy as well means the world.”
Zverev has now made up further ground on Carlos Alcaraz by collecting 2000 ranking points at Roland Garros and just 2770 points split the pair in second and third place.
With Alcaraz losing 1700 points at Wimbledon, and Zverev not defending any points at the Grand Slam, there is every chance the German could be the World No. 2 after the grass court Grand Slam.
Zverev withdrew from the Stuttgart Open following his Roland Garros success, but he is still scheduled to play the Halle Open ahead of Wimbledon.
Jannik Sinner will not play the event for the first time in four years, so Zverev will be the clear favourite to lift the trophy on home soil. He is yet to win the German tournament, although he did reach back-to-back finals in 2016 and 2017.
He will play the event with fellow seeds Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Cobolli, Alexander Bublik, and Andrey Rublev.
