Latest / Bleacher Report / Alexander Zverev Defeats Flavio Cobolli for His First Grand Slam Title _ Roland-Garros 2026
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The burden has been lifted, the questions have ended, and
- 0:03Speaker 1: the title that always felt just out of reach is
- 0:07Speaker 1: now in the hands of Sasha Svera, a moment many
- 0:11Speaker 1: thought would not come. It was a draw that opened
- 0:14Speaker 1: up wide as the week went on, and he really
- 0:16Speaker 1: never falters, finding his way back. In the fifth set,
- 0:20Speaker 1: you can see that emotional relief Kaboli.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Standing behind him.
- 0:24Speaker 1: But this moment, this moment belongs to Verev. There's a
- 0:28Speaker 1: moment that he will cherish for quite some time. Welcome
- 0:30Speaker 1: just outside Musketeer Square and is opening up now, But
- 0:34Speaker 1: it was packed moments ago, and I'm joined by the best.
- 0:36Speaker 1: I got Isner, Query Stevens, I got Jim Currier, Adam Lefko.
- 0:41Speaker 3: Here.
- 0:41Speaker 2: We are awaiting him.
- 0:42Speaker 1: Any moment, Sasha Verev, we will talk to him, but
- 0:45Speaker 1: we captured some of those biggest moments to relive.
- 0:48Speaker 2: How and why Shah.
- 0:50Speaker 4: This chant in his highlights. We're starting right in the
- 0:53Speaker 4: fourth set. This is where everything took place. That was
- 0:55Speaker 4: a set point for Kapol.
- 0:56Speaker 2: He kind of.
- 0:57Speaker 4: Missed time that jump, but he bounced right back the
- 1:00Speaker 4: next set point on Zverev. Sert comes up with this
- 1:02Speaker 4: four hand of the line to take that four set.
- 1:05Speaker 3: I thought he might have celebrated a little too much
- 1:07Speaker 3: at the end of that four set, because he seemed
- 1:09Speaker 3: a little bit when if this returned by Zverev in
- 1:12Speaker 3: the first game in the fifth set to get the
- 1:13Speaker 3: break was the excellent The excellent turn has short of
- 1:16Speaker 3: forced that mistake from Koboli, but this break point right
- 1:19Speaker 3: here to get it back to deuce and eventually able
- 1:22Speaker 3: to consolidate this break and go up to zero, I
- 1:25Speaker 3: think that definitely settled it.
- 1:27Speaker 2: Yeah, And that second game is Verev up and break.
- 1:29Speaker 4: He started that game double fault, double fault, was able
- 1:32Speaker 4: to climb out of a hole with that backhand like
- 1:33Speaker 4: we saw him, it was off to the races. And
- 1:35Speaker 4: this was also a massive point right here. This is
- 1:38Speaker 4: for Koboli to get on the scoreboard at three one.
- 1:40Speaker 4: S Vern showing off the defensive skills and there were
- 1:43Speaker 4: a couple of missed overheads late in this match that
- 1:46Speaker 4: didn't work out well for Koboli.
- 1:47Speaker 5: Ya.
- 1:48Speaker 3: Kaboli actually throughout this match sort of struggled with this
- 1:50Speaker 3: with his overhead, but credit to Zverev, his fitness and
- 1:52Speaker 3: his wheels deep in this fifth set looked so good
- 1:56Speaker 3: calmest a carbon copy of that last point we saw
- 1:58Speaker 3: on match point. Boom, there's the elation, there's a relief crout.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Sanders verebehog what a moment it was.
- 2:06Speaker 1: So did you think he had it after losing the
- 2:08Speaker 1: tiebreaker of before now?
- 2:10Speaker 2: I didn't.
- 2:10Speaker 6: I thought Koboli was going to be able to ride
- 2:12Speaker 6: it from there. I mean even when Coboli played that
- 2:15Speaker 6: shockingly for game to open the fifth set.
- 2:18Speaker 2: Like Zam said, Zverev was super shaky.
- 2:21Speaker 6: In his first service game had the break point, he
- 2:23Speaker 6: had an unforced error on top of the double faults.
- 2:26Speaker 2: Here's the match summaries.
- 2:27Speaker 6: Vereb always serves great high first serve percentage.
- 2:30Speaker 2: The double faults they didn't cost.
- 2:32Speaker 6: Him, thankfully, and he was able to just manage his.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Way once he got that lead.
- 2:37Speaker 6: You could almost see in those two break points, including
- 2:39Speaker 6: the championship point, the pure determination that Zverev has. You
- 2:44Speaker 6: can talk all you want about the numbers, but I
- 2:46Speaker 6: think that was an illustration of just how determined Sloan
- 2:50Speaker 6: he was to get that title today.
- 2:52Speaker 7: He was absolutely determined, and we saw it, the nerves,
- 2:56Speaker 7: everything that went into it, the emotions. You could see
- 2:58Speaker 7: that his body was just so hence, and there was not.
- 3:01Speaker 7: It wasn't because he wasn't in shape. It was just
- 3:03Speaker 7: simply because he was so stressed out. He wanted to
- 3:06Speaker 7: win so badly, and both guys did. And again after
- 3:08Speaker 7: the fourth set, I was like, oh, it's definitely turning
- 3:11Speaker 7: the other way. That was a little bit scary, But
- 3:13Speaker 7: I think for him, he probably just in his mind
- 3:15Speaker 7: was like I lost a set and he.
- 3:17Speaker 2: Just flushed it.
- 3:18Speaker 7: And that was clearly what we saw. He started off
- 3:20Speaker 7: amazing in the fifth set and he just say rock
- 3:23Speaker 7: solid from there on out, not a ton of emotion,
- 3:24Speaker 7: not a bunch of screaming, just literally solid and he
- 3:27Speaker 7: just played and losing a tie break is not something
- 3:30Speaker 7: he has done.
- 3:31Speaker 2: He won twelve in a.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Row twenty here at Rolling Garos. What a performance from
- 3:36Speaker 1: Flavio Koboli, also stepping up his level when it mattered.
- 3:39Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't go as down the line as much
- 3:41Speaker 1: as we thought he would. But you guys commenting on Zverev,
- 3:44Speaker 1: the amount he was sweating, you went, this is uncommon.
- 3:47Speaker 1: Him cramping, that was uncommon. It kept feeling, oh no,
- 3:51Speaker 1: here we go.
- 3:52Speaker 2: And yet he battled all of those deeds.
- 3:54Speaker 4: You could see the sweat stain on his shirt the
- 3:57Speaker 4: entire fourth and fifth set, and the end of that
- 3:59Speaker 4: fourth obviously so stressful right the way it played out,
- 4:02Speaker 4: But after he lost that four set, the runway then
- 4:05Speaker 4: extends a little bit. In that fifth set, he did
- 4:06Speaker 4: seem to settle himself. Luckily for him, he got the
- 4:09Speaker 4: break out of the gate and he didn't have to
- 4:10Speaker 4: go through another stressful situation really, and it's that next
- 4:13Speaker 4: service game right after that. But then after that he
- 4:16Speaker 4: was pretty steady and pretty calm throughout the rest of
- 4:18Speaker 4: that fifth.
- 4:19Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he just stayed so composed as we
- 4:20Speaker 3: talked about after that fourth set, and as Jim said,
- 4:22Speaker 3: this was a huge pivotal fork in the road moment
- 4:26Speaker 3: for him. If he unravels in that this set, he
- 4:28Speaker 3: may never recover. But credit to him, he kept it
- 4:31Speaker 3: together mentally. Then his body started to cooperate as well.
- 4:35Speaker 3: Once he kind of kept together minutally, got sort of
- 4:37Speaker 3: rid of that nervous energy he was experiencing in the
- 4:40Speaker 3: fourth set.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Any questions about the pills that he was given there,
- 4:44Speaker 1: the way it was delivered, or is that just hey,
- 4:47Speaker 1: we're delivering some electrolytes to our player.
- 4:49Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, they looked like those little energy tablets
- 4:52Speaker 6: that a lot of the European players have, like little
- 4:54Speaker 6: sucrose tablets, a little sugar pills.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Effectively, he definitely for the moment, was hurting.
- 5:00Speaker 6: It's pretty unusual to see someone from the team leave
- 5:02Speaker 6: the box and come court side, but there's nothing untoured
- 5:05Speaker 6: about it. It's obviously you know that the trainer could
- 5:08Speaker 6: have taken them and handed them to them, which is
- 5:10Speaker 6: what I was expecting to happen. That was the only
- 5:12Speaker 6: odd thing was that the trainers didn't intervene. But you know, Zverev,
- 5:16Speaker 6: thankfully for him, in that fifth set, his body seemed
- 5:20Speaker 6: to relax, and maybe it was the lead that allowed
- 5:22Speaker 6: him to relax because we we I think we all
- 5:24Speaker 6: agree we've seen him play a lot. He plays as
- 5:28Speaker 6: long as you want, and he doesn't cramp. This guy
- 5:30Speaker 6: is incredibly fit, knows how to manage his energy levels
- 5:33Speaker 6: out there. But stress is a debilitating factor and we
- 5:37Speaker 6: saw I think both of them. I think we're dealing
- 5:39Speaker 6: with that because they both came in very fresh. You know,
- 5:42Speaker 6: well he didn't even play a semi final, so but
- 5:44Speaker 6: the energy, mental energy that you can spend that I
- 5:48Speaker 6: can sap you pretty quickly.
- 5:50Speaker 1: It was an incredible moment for him to overcome all
- 5:52Speaker 1: of those emotions. It was incredible to think of all
- 5:55Speaker 1: the years past, what he had to have on his shoulders.
- 5:58Speaker 2: To eventually lift that trophy. And the man is joining
- 6:01Speaker 2: us now.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Sasha Zverev, congratulations on this slam. I have to ask
- 6:06Speaker 1: you four years ago on this play, you suffer that
- 6:09Speaker 1: ankle injury. Two years ago you had the finish line
- 6:12Speaker 1: in your sights and Alcoraz able to take it.
- 6:14Speaker 2: But today today you hold that trophy. What does it
- 6:18Speaker 2: mean to get it done? On Shatrie, I mean's the world.
- 6:22Speaker 5: As you said, this court has been with some of
- 6:24Speaker 5: my most special memories, but some of my biggest heartbreaks.
- 6:28Speaker 5: You know, laying on the floor with seven broken ligaments
- 6:32Speaker 5: and you know, two fractured bones, and then also losing
- 6:35Speaker 5: the final two years ago here against Carlos. These are
- 6:38Speaker 5: all tough moments that that that you remember. And I
- 6:42Speaker 5: felt like throughout to two weeks I was managing my
- 6:45Speaker 5: emotions extremely well. I was playing well in important moments.
- 6:48Speaker 5: I felt like today I didn't. I was a lot
- 6:51Speaker 5: more nervous. I feel like the match was a lot
- 6:52Speaker 5: more up and down from my side, But at the
- 6:55Speaker 5: end of the day, the most important thing was the
- 6:57Speaker 5: fifth set, and I won that and I'm happy to
- 7:00Speaker 5: be holding.
- 7:01Speaker 6: This Sasha Jim Currier here, I want to know about
- 7:04Speaker 6: the emotional journey within the match for you there. All
- 7:07Speaker 6: players have lots of conversations with themselves during the quiet
- 7:11Speaker 6: moments on the court, especially after the fourth set.
- 7:14Speaker 2: What did you have to tell yourself to get through
- 7:16Speaker 2: this match? And congratulate kind of by the way, thank you? Yeah,
- 7:19Speaker 2: you know what kind of helped me.
- 7:21Speaker 5: It kind of helped me mentally that I was cramping
- 7:23Speaker 5: a bit, and I was cramping because of emotional effort.
- 7:26Speaker 5: I wasn't cramping because of physical effort. I haven't cramped
- 7:28Speaker 5: in probably ten years. And I was very nervous. I
- 7:32Speaker 5: was very kind of tightened up. And then once I cramped,
- 7:35Speaker 5: I relaxed and that helped me and I feel like
- 7:38Speaker 5: I played better in the fifth set. I played more free,
- 7:41Speaker 5: I played more aggressive, and yeah, today I actually think
- 7:47Speaker 5: that I wont be goow of the cramps.
- 7:50Speaker 7: Pay Sash and grads.
- 7:51Speaker 2: It's Sloan here.
- 7:52Speaker 7: I had a question about the fourth set. So you
- 7:55Speaker 7: haven't lost a tiebreak here in forever losing the fourth
- 7:58Speaker 7: set and a tibreaker going into the what was your
- 8:00Speaker 7: mindset and how did you reset yourself?
- 8:04Speaker 5: It really helped me that he left for bathroom break
- 8:06Speaker 5: and I kind of had five minutes because my legs
- 8:08Speaker 5: kind of you know, it's it's got better. It was
- 8:12Speaker 5: not cramping as much. And then, as I said, I
- 8:15Speaker 5: was a lot more relaxed. I was a lot more
- 8:17Speaker 5: free in my head in the fifth set than I
- 8:19Speaker 5: wasn't an entire four set. And yeah, again, I think
- 8:23Speaker 5: I played probably my best set of the final, which
- 8:26Speaker 5: was my fifth set.
- 8:28Speaker 4: Sasha, Sam here, well done, congratulations. When that final overhead
- 8:32Speaker 4: went long, off Sam, Sam.
- 8:34Speaker 5: Quarry, Sam query, why are you on this channel? You
- 8:42Speaker 5: got like all champions and then you got Sam Querry?
- 8:44Speaker 3: What is he doing?
- 8:45Speaker 2: John? Is there a champion? Wow?
- 8:48Speaker 4: My question is when that final overhead went long, did
- 8:50Speaker 4: you feel more relief from within or more excitement?
- 8:57Speaker 5: First of all, I'm very happy that I'm holding this
- 8:59Speaker 5: because you said old never will. So thank you very
- 9:01Speaker 5: much for your confidence. Just for the people that don't know,
- 9:05Speaker 5: we have a love hate relationship with Sam and and
- 9:07Speaker 5: and I actually I actually love it.
- 9:09Speaker 2: I enjoy it.
- 9:10Speaker 5: So I love giving you a hard time, but no,
- 9:14Speaker 5: I was I was kind of in a state where
- 9:16Speaker 5: I was ready to keep playing, funny enough. But then
- 9:19Speaker 5: I saw my box and they all raised their hands
- 9:21Speaker 5: in the air, and I was like, Okay, it's over.
- 9:22Speaker 2: I I won.
- 9:23Speaker 5: I'm a Grand Slam champion, And yeah, I was relief.
- 9:27Speaker 5: It was it was all the emotions that all came together.
- 9:31Speaker 3: Alex Is John here, congratulations, tying to you John anytime.
- 9:36Speaker 3: I love this guy, seriously, congratulations an unbelievable effort out
- 9:41Speaker 3: there today. How is this win going to affect your
- 9:44Speaker 3: freedom as a player going forward the rest of your career?
- 9:48Speaker 6: Uh?
- 9:49Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's definitely a huge stone that kind
- 9:52Speaker 5: of is back, you know, gone from my from my shoulders.
- 9:56Speaker 5: I do feel like now looking back, if I probably
- 9:59Speaker 5: would have lost this final up, maybe would have never
- 10:02Speaker 5: won him Slam. But now that I've won this, it
- 10:05Speaker 5: kind of changes. I feel more free. I feel like
- 10:07Speaker 5: I've done it and maybe in a way I can
- 10:11Speaker 5: enjoy these Grand Slams more. Maybe I can enjoy these
- 10:14Speaker 5: finals a bit more, play my best tennis, and hopefully
- 10:18Speaker 5: this is just the start.
- 10:20Speaker 1: The first German Man to win a major since Boris
- 10:22Speaker 1: Becker thirty years ago.
- 10:24Speaker 2: Sasha s Verev, congratulations.
- 10:26Speaker 5: Thank you guys, thank you very much, well done.
- 10:30Speaker 2: Thank you. Notes for Sam Sam, I still love you.
- 10:34Speaker 2: Don't thank you. It's easy.
- 10:37Speaker 5: I love you when I'm holding this.
- 10:38Speaker 2: But I still love it.
- 10:40Speaker 6: Now Yasha has won a major, he can't come on
- 10:42Speaker 6: your podcast, So.
- 10:45Speaker 2: I think the.
- 10:46Speaker 1: Most interesting line he said there was I won this
- 10:50Speaker 1: because of cramp, and I think that had a double entendre.
- 10:53Speaker 1: He won it because it freedom up tonight, and you
- 10:55Speaker 1: want it because Yanic cramped about.
- 10:57Speaker 2: A week and a half ago.
- 10:58Speaker 1: I don't want to take anything away from the moment tonight,
- 11:00Speaker 1: but it's so interesting that cramping, which made us all
- 11:03Speaker 1: nervous there in the green room, it freed him up.
- 11:06Speaker 2: How does that happen? Why does that free up a champion.
- 11:09Speaker 6: It's like if you've got a bad problem with your
- 11:11Speaker 6: ankle and you bang your thumb, you're not thinking about
- 11:13Speaker 6: your ankle anymore. He had a head problem, and now
- 11:15Speaker 6: all of a sudden, he's thinking about my body in
- 11:18Speaker 6: my legs, and can I actually move around and do
- 11:21Speaker 6: the things instead of oh my god, why can't I
- 11:23Speaker 6: move around and do things, So in a way it
- 11:25Speaker 6: was the perfect distraction for him to get free and listen.
- 11:29Speaker 6: I hope he is free the rest of his career
- 11:31Speaker 6: to play the way that he wants to. And I'm
- 11:33Speaker 6: glad that in many ways that stone is off of
- 11:35Speaker 6: his back, because that would have been a tough one
- 11:37Speaker 6: to lose.
- 11:37Speaker 4: It was also interesting he mentioned that Koboli after the
- 11:40Speaker 4: fourth set took a bathroom break. It gave him five
- 11:42Speaker 4: minutes to sit on the bench recollect his thoughts. Because
- 11:45Speaker 4: Coboli had all the momentum, all of that. I was
- 11:47Speaker 4: actually surprised Kabuli went to the restroom, right, You think
- 11:49Speaker 4: he'd want to sit down, wait for the court to
- 11:51Speaker 4: get cleaned up and get back out there as soon
- 11:53Speaker 4: as possible.
- 11:54Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a little bit of treatment too. I
- 11:56Speaker 2: think they're in the course of that five minutes. But
- 11:58Speaker 2: perhaps when Koboli was gone, you know.
- 12:00Speaker 3: It just but most importantly right here, yes, most importantly,
- 12:05Speaker 3: more than his legs, he collected his head and then
- 12:07Speaker 3: that allowed his body to free up in that fist set.
- 12:09Speaker 1: What'd you think of our interviewer from there? Other than
- 12:11Speaker 1: the shots, it's Sam.
- 12:13Speaker 7: Other than the strays that Sam.
- 12:15Speaker 2: No it's great.
- 12:15Speaker 7: I think obviously when you win, you can, you know,
- 12:19Speaker 7: say and do whatever you want.
- 12:20Speaker 2: So Sam was just bi gladly whatever he wants to
- 12:23Speaker 2: me today.
- 12:23Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly, But no, I think obviously, emotionally today it
- 12:27Speaker 7: was tough, and I think as a champion, when you
- 12:29Speaker 7: get to the other side, you're happy, You're excited, like
- 12:32Speaker 7: that is the stone off of his back, and you
- 12:34Speaker 7: can only be happy for him because you know, everyone's
- 12:36Speaker 7: been in a situation where you've been trying to win
- 12:38Speaker 7: a tournament and it's just so stressful.
- 12:39Speaker 2: You can't even play.
- 12:40Speaker 7: Your everything's cramping, your body's tense, your mind's tense, everything
- 12:43Speaker 7: is tense. So to get over that hump today, I
- 12:45Speaker 7: think is incredibly special for someone who has been so
- 12:47Speaker 7: consistent and someone who truly does deserve.
- 12:49Speaker 6: It, someone that John and I saw at Saddlebrook since
- 12:52Speaker 6: he was nine years old, eight years old, watching him
- 12:55Speaker 6: play with his mom while his brother Misha was practicing.
- 12:58Speaker 2: With you or even at times with me. Totally.
- 13:00Speaker 3: I've been practicing with Alex since he was thirteen or
- 13:03Speaker 3: fourteen years old. It was evident from an early age
- 13:06Speaker 3: that he was a prodigy. He was so good from
- 13:08Speaker 3: the back of the court. He has spent so many
- 13:11Speaker 3: hours on the court. This guy would practice in the morning,
- 13:14Speaker 3: do his weight. I'm talking about fifteen years old, and
- 13:16Speaker 3: then he would hit from six to eight pm, five
- 13:19Speaker 3: days a week at Sadurbrook in.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Tampa, Florida. He was he's just been an absolute war first,
- 13:23Speaker 2: he's so deserving of it.
- 13:24Speaker 6: And there's his mom in the blue there holding the
- 13:26Speaker 6: trophy as well with their puppy. That's she goes out
- 13:29Speaker 6: and walks the dog during the match. That's how she
- 13:31Speaker 6: deals with the stress.
- 13:32Speaker 2: The long four hour walk today. Right, isn't that cute?
- 13:35Speaker 2: That is pretty cute, Okay, But.
- 13:37Speaker 1: My other question is is you know he jokingly takes
- 13:39Speaker 1: shot to his father and his brother Nisha, and his
- 13:42Speaker 1: daddy can't get rid of him. Right, twenty nine years
- 13:44Speaker 1: with his father and his brother.
- 13:45Speaker 2: How tight is that relationship? How unique is this situation?
- 13:48Speaker 6: It's super tight, but you know it also comes with
- 13:51Speaker 6: some interesting variables, right that it's not always comfortable. It's
- 13:54Speaker 6: not always easy to know where the line is between
- 13:57Speaker 6: family and the coaching relationship. But Misha, his brother especially,
- 14:02Speaker 6: was responsible for changing the service toss and making his
- 14:04Speaker 6: serve what it is today. It was always really good.
- 14:07Speaker 6: The first it's even better, and the second serve, even
- 14:10Speaker 6: though today it had some troubles, it did a little
- 14:12Speaker 6: bit better than probably it would have been twenty twenty.
- 14:16Speaker 6: So he's made lots of games with them, and there
- 14:18Speaker 6: have been lots of pundits who've said, you need.
- 14:19Speaker 2: To bring it outside people.
- 14:21Speaker 6: There have been times that he has done that, but
- 14:24Speaker 6: ultimately he went back to the family and it is
- 14:26Speaker 6: a big win for a family who's given everything for
- 14:29Speaker 6: their two children.
- 14:30Speaker 1: He's always had the big serve, he has always had
- 14:33Speaker 1: a beautiful backhand. Now he has a Slam championship trophy
- 14:38Speaker 1: in the bookcase that he could look at as a
- 14:40Speaker 1: reminder of all that he's accomplished.