Zverev stares down his defining moment

After his third such loss, a 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3 defeat to Jannik Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final, Zverev was close to breaking point. 

“I’m just not good enough, it’s as simple as that,” he told the crowd in an excruciating, heartfelt  moment. 

Seventeen months later, Zverev is back again to prove his own words wrong. He will face Italy’s Flavio Cobolli in Sunday’s final – and merits praise for that feat alone. 

“He deserves a lot of credit for always having a say at the end of these events,” said Andre Agassi, who talked about Zverev’s semifinal win on the TNT set in Paris on Friday. “Come rain or shine, the guy is there – if you get enough looks, it’s going to happen.” 

Eight-time major champion Agassi agrees that a Grand Slam trophy is the one thing that Zverev, a 24-time title winner on the ATP Tour, is missing. 

“There’s no doubt that winning a Slam is a binary moment in a player’s career,” he said. “There are people that have one and there are people that don’t have them. To a large degree you have to respect his fortitude of all the years, coming up short but always putting himself in position.” 

Ever since Sinner and Novak Djokovic crashed out of the men’s singles draw on consecutive days last week in Paris, Zverev has been the prohibitive favourite to break through and win a Slam. But simply putting himself in position in a tournament that is also without Carlos Alcaraz due to injury won’t be enough on Sunday. 

“I think it would mean everything,” Caroline Wozniacki, an analyst for TNT who broke down Friday’s match with Agassi, said. “He’s done so much in his career but he hasn’t had a Slam.”

Playing in his 41st Grand Slam, and his 11th Roland-Garros, Zverev has banged on the door too many times to count, but playing in eras dominated first by the Big 3, then by Alcaraz and Sinner has been his kryptonite. 

He’s never been able to bust the door down. 

“It’s taken him a long time to get to this point where it’s his Slam to win or lose,” Wozniacki said. “It’s been a family thing for them. I think for all of them to reach the pinnacle of tennis and win a Grand Slam, I think it would mean everything to them as a family.”  

So far so good for Team Zverev. After today’s 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Jakub Mensik, he’s one win from exorcising his demons, and he enters Sunday’s clash with Cobolli in arguably the best form of his life. Zverev has won 18 of his last 20 matches at Roland-Garros. He’s 11-1 in majors this year, his only loss a five-setter to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open semifinals. 

One more win and it will all change for Zverev. So what’s on his mind as the most important moment of his career approaches? 

“Pure emptiness, there’s absolutely nothing in my head… sometimes it’s easier to be stupid than to think too much,” he said with a smile. 

If the No.2 seed is feeling the heat, he hasn’t shown it. He was calm and in command of Mensik for most of the match on Friday, and he has dropped just two sets in six matches during his run to the final. 

“I’ve always found a way even when it got difficult,” a satisfied Zverev said after the win. “I feel like today Jakub started playing amazing tennis in the third set and I found a way straightaway in the fourth set. 

“Definitely today was the toughest challenge of the tournament.”

Agassi thinks that Zverev has plenty more potential to unlock, and believes that if he wins on Sunday he could jump to another level of his game. 

“He has a lot of upside in his game, and he has a lot of power,” Agassi said. “The serve is such a beauty, the fact that he can hit that first serve and rely on most pressure points being played on his opponent’s serve just allows him to swing freely and go through a lot of guys.

"I want to see him continue getting better, regardless of what happens Sunday, but it does look like [the title is] his.”