Zverev, Andreeva crowned French Open champions
Russia's Mirra Andreeva reacts after winning the final tennis match against Poland's Maja Chwalinska at the French Open in Paris on Saturday (AP Photo)
PARIS (AP) — Alexander Zverev is no longer one of the best players never to win a major title. He’s finally a Grand Slam champion. In his fourth major final, Zverev beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 for the French Open title on Sunday. It was a unique opportunity for Zverev without Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz across the net and the third-ranked German took full advantage on the red clay of Roland Garros. When Cobolli missed an overhead on the second championship point after more than four hours of the five-set encounter, Zverev dropped on his back to the clay and covered his face with his hands as he began sobbing. When he got up, with his shirt and arms covered in clay, Zverev put his hands back on his face before he lifted both arms in celebration. When Zverev was handed the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy, he lifted it with both hands and let out a liberating roar. “This court is so special to me in so many ways. I’ve had the best moments of my life on this court; I had the worst moment of my life on these courts,” Zverev said, referring to when he was injured and pushed off on a wheelchair during a semifinal against Rafael Nadal in 2022. “I was laying in that corner over there four years ago with seven broken ligaments and two fractured bones,” Zverev said. “I lost a Grand Slam final here two years ago but now finally it’s a happy end.” Zverev has now joined an elite group of players that captured their first major in their fourth final: Eight-time major champion Andre Agassi, 2001 Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic and 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem. WOMEN’S TITLE PARIS (AP) — Bent over with her hands covering her face, her knees getting dirtied on the red clay court, Mirra Andreeva was celebrating — processing might be the more appropriate word — how she had finally overcome “so many demons inside” that came with being a teenage tennis phenom. After bursting onto the scene at 15, Andreeva became a Grand Slam champion at 19 when the Russian ended the run of 114th-ranked Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the French Open final on Saturday. “I’ve done a lot of visualizations before. Not just this tournament, but I’ve had dreams, I’ve had a lot of thoughts on how it’s going to happen, if it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, where,” Andreeva said, still hardly breathing as she talked quickly in true teenage style. “The feeling in real life is so much better than in your dreams.”