Zverev breaks down the wall to enter Grand Slam winners' circle at French Open

PARIS, June 7 : Alexander Zverev finally shattered the barrier between himself and Grand Slam glory by grinding down a stubborn Flavio Cobolli 6-1 4-6 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1 in the French Open final on Sunday to lift his maiden major trophy at Roland Garros.

After falling three times at the final hurdle, including in Paris two years ago, Zverev capped a relentless run by becoming the first German man to win a major title since Boris Becker's Australian Open triumph three decades ago.

In a Paris fortnight during which Carlos Alcaraz was absent due to injury and Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic lost early to blow the draw wide open, the second seed embraced his new status as the hot favourite for the Musketeers' Cup and delivered.

"I want to congratulate Flavio. What an unbelievable two weeks, reaching your first Grand Slam final, and playing your first final like this," Zverev said in his on-court interview.

"From the bottom of my heart, I hope you lift this trophy very soon. You're one of the best people on tour.

"I really felt the crowd was pushing me throughout these two weeks and without you guys I wouldn't have won this tournament."

With the sun shining down on Court Philippe Chatrier, Zverev broke Cobolli with a backhand shot that pinged off the Italian's orange-framed racket, and he tightened his grip further to wrap up the opening set with a forehand winner down the middle.

Cobolli fired himself up and produced stunning shot-making to break in the seventh game of the next set and then drew level with a confident hold, as the centre court crowd whipped up a soccer-like atmosphere for the former AS Roma academy player.

Those voices soon fell silent deep in the third set as 10th seed Cobolli struck a forehand into the net to gift