Alexander Zverev trembles: he has a resounding Italian curse

On Sunday, Alexander Zverev has a date with destiny: according to many insiders, the German is the strongest tennis player ever not to have won a Slam tournament. The upcoming final is really his biggest chance to finally succeed in his most coveted title, and he will be able to do so without facing Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

But something casts a shadow over his match on Sunday: the nationality of his opponent, Flavio Cobolli. Italian tennis players have indeed often been hostile for Zverev in recent times, and one particular statistic makes his fans tremble: the German’s last six defeats on the ATP circuit have come in matches against Italian players.

Zverev was eliminated in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid by Jannik Sinner, while in Munich it was Flavio Cobolli himself who ousted him from the tournament. His most recent defeat was in Rome: it was inflicted by another Italian, Luciano Darderi. In a Roland Garros so full of surprises, Zverev is crossing his fingers and hoping to break the Italian curse.

Cobolli reached the final in the most unstable way possible: compatriot Matteo Arnaldi, his designated opponent in the semifinals, raised the white flag minutes before the start of the match due to a virus. It was a bitter epilogue for the Ligurian tennis player, who had enjoyed an extraordinary adventure in Paris starting at number 104 in the ATP rankings and accumulating nearly twenty hours of play, eliminating Griekspoor, Tsitsipas, Collignon, Tiafoe, and Berrettini in order. It was to Arnaldi that Cobolli’s first thought at the press conference went: “I wanted to thank you for what you did these two weeks, you were an inspiration, you fought for so many hours showing your true worth. I am sure we would have had a great battle as you and I are used to.”