Alexander Zverev finally landed the Grand Slam title that threatened to elude him by overcoming Flavio Cobolli and his own nerves to win a tense French Open final in five sets.
The 29-year-old German secured his first, long-awaited major triumph with a 6-1 4-6 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 victory over 10th seed Cobolli on Sunday evening in Paris.
After losing his three previous Grand Slam finals, second seed Zverev became increasingly tight against an opponent playing in his first championship match.
That was in marked contrast to the start of the match, with Zverev racing through the first set and quickly reasserting his authority after Cobolli snatched the second.
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But the stress levels increased for Zverev in a dramatic fourth set where he twice fell a break down, produced a series of costly double faults and needed electrolytes to fight off cramp.
Cobolli could not serve the fourth set out at 5-4 up and blew his first set point in the tie-break by framing a simple forehand volley, but recovered to force a decider.
Both men continued to show anxiety in a final set which veered between entertaining and excruciating to watch.
Zverev made slightly fewer errors to move a double break ahead at 3-0 and dragged himself over the line as the 24-year-old Cobolli ran out of steam.
Source: BBC
