Alcaraz wins French Open after victory over Zverev

Alcaraz has thus already secured Grand Slam titles on all surfaces at just 21 years of age. He achieved this feat as the youngest player in the professional era, after triumphing at the US Open (hard court) in 2022 and Wimbledon (grass) in 2023.

The 27-year-old German, on the other hand, also lost his second major final. For him, it was a deja vu. As in 2020 in Flushing Meadows in a memorable match against the Lower Austrian Dominic Thiem, the happy ending was missing after a five-set battle. Alcaraz, on the other hand, also successfully mastered his third Grand Slam final. The reward is not only prize money of 2.4 million euros, but also a move up to second place in the ATP world rankings from Monday. This will then be led for the first time by the South Tyrolean Jannik Sinner, whom Alcaraz also defeated in five sets in the semifinals.

Nervousness noticeable

Alcaraz had to play five sets for the 12th time in his career, and he emerged victorious eleven times. At Roland Garros, he became the seventh Spaniard to win the trophy in the open era, making the early exit of 14-time winner Rafael Nadal forgotten. In the head-to-head with Zverev, he tied the match at 5:5.

Both players were noticeably nervous at the start of their first Paris final, and they were unable to get their serves through. The Spaniard took his opponent’s serve again to make it 3-2, then shone with his joy of playing and ended the first set with another break. After that, the match remained even until 2-2, before the now much more active Zverev suddenly appeared dominant and equalized the set with four games in a row.

Curious sentence three

Set number three was extremely strange, as everything went well for Alcaraz until he was leading 5:2 with a break. But with this comfortable lead, the Spaniard did not move so well, made minor errors and thus allowed the German two breaks and to win the set 7:5. After Alcaraz missed a break point, Zverev used his second set point.

This did not mean that the match was decided. With the deficit behind him, Alcaraz took the initiative again and pulled away with a double break to 4:0. Zverev managed a rebreak to make it 1:4. Alcaraz had to treat his left thigh and took a painkiller. He did not let the problems show, he continued to move well and saved himself confidently with two more games in the fifth set.

First French Open title

There, Alcaraz broke to make it 2-1. The ups and downs on both sides continued, however. At first, the Spaniard was 0-40 behind, but fended off four break points in total and increased his lead to 3-1. In the next marathon game, Zverev was able to shorten the lead to 2-3 after fending off a break point. Alcaraz also had problems with his serve, but held it and did not lose another game. In the decisive points, the Spaniard, driven by coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, was simply more composed.

This meant that he won the title in his fourth Paris appearance after losing the semifinal against Novak Djokovic in 2023. It was his 14th ATP triumph. Zverev suffered another blow on Court Philippe Chatrier, where he had seriously injured his foot in the semifinal against Nadal two years ago.