French Open Day 15 - Zverev wins, but polarises

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, the final daily tennis podcast from the 2026 French Open. This is number 18 of 18 And boy, have we had some thrills and spills along the way. You find us tonight on the benches or bleachers, if you're of the American persuasion, of court 13 over on the far side of the grounds, beyond court Suzanne Longlen. It is 11.3 at night. David, Matt and I are huddled together.
One last time here at Roland Garros, there are distant sounds of various rap parties drifting over from the other side of the grounds towards Philippe Châtrier. And I was casting my mind back earlier to the first of our 18 podcasts here at Roland Garros after the draw at the Orangerie, and how overwhelming a favorite Yannick Sinner was for the title here at that point, and how the whole tournament flipped completely upside down in about a 30-hour period in the first week when first Sinner lost and then Djokovic. Since that moment, all eyes have been on Alexander Zverev and whether he could cope with the magnitude of finally being handed the opportunity of a lifetime to become a major champion. And we now know that the answer is yes, he could and he did. Five sets and more than four anxious hours it took him to beat Flavio Cobolli today, but he does not care how it happened, he just cares that his name is on the trophy finally at the age of 29 David, Matt, as a headline, how would you describe this final as a tennis match?

**David Law** (1:56)
He got the job done in a torturous fashion, really.
It was hell for him on that court today. I think it was hell for both of them, really.
They really struggled emotionally, psychologically and then physically to try one of them to get over the line. Neither one of them will feel that they played particularly well. They did in spells, certainly Zverev started incredibly well, but then the whole match just became overwhelmed with nervousness. It was totally understandable in the situation they find themselves in. Cobolli never having played a Grand Slam final before, Zverev having played several and knowing, given the backdrop that you've just outlined, that he had to do it now. He even said afterwards, if I hadn't have done it now, I would have lost a lot of confidence that I ever would. And really, I think it was hanging by a thread for him, his whole hopes of ever doing it. But he did do it, and credit to him for that.

**Catherine** (3:05)
6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 in 4 hours and 16 minutes. Matt, how would you describe it?

**Matt** (3:16)
I think excruciating would be my word of choice, which is quite something really when that final set was 6-1 and there was as little jeopardy in that deciding set as there was. He won that pretty comfortably, Alexander Zverev, but the fourth set was as error-laden, nerve-ridden, a Grand Slam final as I can remember since Zverev's first one, I would say, against Dominic Thiem. There were definite echoes of that, where both players were really struggling physically, both with their nerves and perhaps physically because of their nerves, and one would take an advantage and hand it back, and you just didn't know which way it was going.
It was an interesting watch. I was into the drama of it. But yeah, I think excruciating for both of them, and especially Alexander Zverev trying to achieve this thing that he knew was his big opportunity.

**Catherine** (4:23)
And he's not hiding from that, is he, Zverev, in terms of the performance or the match? He's not trying to pretend that was some sublime, career-defining performance to get over the line. He just simply doesn't care. This was just about the quest and getting over that line somehow, wasn't it? I mean, he was cramping in that fourth set. He said he believes those cramps were stress-related, and I can absolutely believe that. That's how it felt to me at the time. He doesn't have a lot of tennis in his legs. We know that he's pretty well-equipped physically to deal with five-set matches.
And again, this chimed with what I was thinking watching the match. He said the cramping actually helped him, because it loosened him up and it focused his mind, and it made him just swing.

**David Law** (5:14)
Yeah, because he came out at the start of the match in a very sort of controlled manner. Those are the sounds of them loading the trolleys full of gear that they have to do at the end of the tournament.