Alexander Zverev has dedicated his life to lifting a Grand Slam trophy and that wait finally came to an end at around 7.45pm on the Court Philippe-Chatrier clay.

As he watched Flavio Cobolli’s final overhead sail out of court, the 29-year-old German collapsed to the red dirt in pure ecstasy and relief that he could celebrate a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 victory.

After near misses in his three previous Grand Slam singles finals, Zverev’s five-set result makes him the first German man to win at Roland-Garros in the Open era, and the first to win a Grand Slam singles title anywhere since Boris Becker in Australia in 1996.

The match was in the balance once Cobolli had snatched the fourth set tiebreak after Zverev had come within three points of victory.

But despite starting to cramp towards the end of that fourth set, if anything Zverev played with more freedom in the decider to start to distance himself from the 24-year-old Italian.

“This court is so special to me in so many ways," Zverev said during the trophy ceremony.

“I've had the best moments of my life on this court. I had the worst moment of my life on this court.

“I was laying in that corner over there four years ago with seven broken ligaments and two fractured bones.”

Once Cobolli had begun to process the disappointment, he promised to do everything in his powers to return to a Grand Slam final. "When you reach the first final, why not the second?"

As Cobolli will now tell you, Grand Slam finals are special days in the sport and it’s a privilege to get a seat courtside for well over four hours of that kind of back-and-forth drama. RG’s Chris Oddo was among the 15,000 fans inside Chatrier and wrote about the sense of occasion.

Earlier on the same court, Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova and her American partner Taylor Townsend were presented with the women’s doubles trophy.

The top seeds landed their third Grand Slam as a team - and their third at three different majors - by outplaying Kazakhstani Anna Danilina and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 6-2, 7-5.

“This tournament is really, really beautiful, really special,” said Townsend, who has won all three of her major titles alongside Siniakova.

“This is some of the best tennis in the world, we’re the best players in the world – No.1 and No.2 seeds – we work hard, we sacrifice so much, this means a lot.”

The result earned Siniakova her 11th Grand Slam doubles title - four in Paris, three in both Australia and at Wimbledon and another in New York.

And so those two results bring the curtain down on the 125th edition of Roland-Garros, an event that tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said on Sunday had been a huge success, and that will be remembered for so many surprise results, and remarkable Grand Slam battles, many played in extreme heat as temperature rose in Paris.

Before we all said our goodbyes, Alex Sharp chose his ten favourite matches from the last three weeks. Give it a read and see if you agree.

We’ll see you next time. Au revoir.