Alexander Zverev will have his best shot to finally win a Grand Slam at Roland-Garros on Sunday. His final obstacle will be a 24-year-old Italian—just not the one that’s consistently defeated him the last three years.
Zverev, 29, advanced to the French Open final with a four-set win Friday over Jakub Menšík. He will face Flavio Cobolli, No. 11 in the world and the second-ranked Italian, who will make his first Grand Slam after countryman Matteo Arnaldi withdrew from their semifinal due to illness on Friday.
Jannik Sinner is the top-ranked Italian and best player in the world, but he is long gone after he was upset in the third round by Juan Manuel Cerundolo. Sinner is 10–4 against Zverev, and has won their last nine head-to-head matchups—including the 2025 Australian Open final, the last time Zverev made a Grand Slam final.
Sinner has split the last nine Grand Slam titles with Carlos Alcaraz, who won four of the last five matches against Zverev, including the 2024 final at Roland-Garros. But the young Spaniard missed the tournament due to injury. (He will also miss Wimbledon later this month.)
Add Novak Djokovic to the mix, and one of the three has prevailed in every Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2022. But Djokovic was also eliminated in the third round this year by Joao Fonseca.
A breakthrough for Zverev would be a crowning achievement for one of the most consistent players on tour, which can be illustrated by his spot in the total career earnings list. The German player is ranked No. 7 at $62.6 million, just behind Sinner, and ahead of multi-time Grand Slam winners Pete Sampras and Stan Wawrinka, who is retiring at the end of this year.
Zverev is the only player in the top 10 who has yet to win a Grand Slam. He has also not won a major title despite three previous finals appearances.
The French Open winner will earn around $3.27 million (€2,800,000), which would catapult Zverev into the top 4 of career earnings, ahead of Sinner, Alcaraz, and Andy Murray.
A win over Cobolli is no guarantee. The Italian beat Zverev on clay two months ago during an ATP 500 event in Munich. Zverev did, however, beat him less than two weeks later at the Masters 1000 event in Madrid.
Beyond Tennis
A win at Roland-Garros may also come with renewed scrutiny. Zverev has been shrouded in controversy for the past half decade due to allegations of physical and emotional abuse from multiple former partners.
In 2020, a now-deleted article was published on Racquet written by tennis Ben Rothenberg in which Zverev’s ex-girlfriend Olga Sharypova makes abuse accusations.
A year later, Rothenberg published another story, this time on Slate, which added more specifics, including a time Zverev allegedly punched her in the face in a Geneva hotel room where they were staying for the Laver Cup. The Slate story has not been deleted despite injunction efforts by Zverev and his legal team to bar the magazine from posting abuse allegations.
In early 2023, the ATP Tour decided not to penalize Zverev over the allegations after over a yearlong investigation, citing insufficient evidence.
However, a few months later, Brenda Patea, another ex-partner of Zverev, publicly accused him of domestic violence, which led to a lawsuit in German court. In 2024, Zverev settled the case out of court, paying about $220,000 (€200,000) and was not found guilty of any wrongdoing.
