Roland Garros, Zverev first finalist awaits Flavio Cobolli
Alexander Zverev can still hope for his first Slam. The German tennis player overcame Czech Jakub Mensik in the semifinals of Roland Garros, qualifying for the last act of the Paris tournament for the second time in his career. Zverev, in his fourth Slam final, beat rising star Mensik in four sets with the scores of 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in nearly three hours of play.
Almost business as usual for the German, who is looking forward to the opportunity given the simultaneous absence of Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. The Teutonic tennis player seemed decidedly determined and not at all affected by the tension: against Mensik he was very focused and left no chance for the young Czech, who paid for his inexperience in the hottest moments of the match.
After winning cleanly the first two partials, Zverev experienced a lapse in the third set but immediately came back into the match in the fourth, raising the level and closing out the match also thanks to a very solid serve.
A path, that of Zverev to the final, started with another show of strength in the quarterfinals against the young Spaniard Rafael Jodar. The 19-year-old Iberian had surprised everyone with a resounding qualification in the penultimate act, but he paid the price for inexperience: after even flying to 5-2 in the first set, he was remounted by the German, who won the partial at the tie-break before clearly dominating the next two sets with 6-2 and 6-3 scores. A clear signal sent to all rivals left in the running.
After the victory over Mensik, Zverev commented with satisfaction on his own performance, “In the last two weeks Mensik has been playing unbelievable, but I am happy that I handled the challenge well and won. The final? I hope to play a great match on Sunday. The atmosphere is always fantastic, the French public is always inside the game.” Words that betray all the German’s eagerness not to waste a historic opportunity.
In the final Zverev will face Flavio Cobolli, who reached the last act in the most rocambolic way possible. The Roman tennis player, now one step away from the Top 10 in the ATP rankings, was expected to play in the semifinals against compatriot Matteo Arnaldi, but the Ligurian withdrew minutes before the start of the match due to a virus-related problem. It was a bitter ending for Arnaldi, who had had an extraordinary adventure in Paris: starting as number 104 in the ATP ranking, he had accumulated nearly 20 hours of play by eliminating Griekspoor, Tsitsipas, Collignon, Tiafoe, and Berrettini in order. Only a few days ago he had commented incredulously on his own Paris adventure, “I can’t believe it … a month ago I was playing the Challenger in Cagliari.”
