Roland-Garros 2026 recap: Zverev and Andreeva win first Grand Slam titles in Paris

Alexander Zverev and Mirra Andreeva won their first Grand Slam titles at Roland-Garros in June 2026. Andreeva, 19, beat Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska in the women's final on 6 June, and Zverev overcame Flavio Cobolli in five sets the next day.

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Flavio Cobolli vs Alexander Zverev | Men's Final Highlights | Roland-Garros 2026 — Roland-Garros · YouTube, plays on click

A draw without its favourites

The men's event lost its two-time defending champion before a ball was struck. Carlos Alcaraz announced on 24 April that a right wrist injury would keep him out of Rome and Paris.

The top seed did not last long either. On 28 May, Jannik Sinner led unseeded Juan Manuel Cerundolo by two sets and 5-1 in the third, then struggled physically in hot conditions and lost 3-6 2-6 7-5 6-1 6-1 in the second round. The defeat ended a 30-match winning streak. A day later, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca came back from two sets down to beat Novak Djokovic 4-6 4-6 6-3 7-5 7-5 in the third round.

The women's favourites fell later but just as hard. Four-time champion Iga Swiatek lost 7-5 6-1 to Marta Kostyuk in the fourth round on her 25th birthday. In the quarter-finals, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka led Diana Shnaider 6-3 4-1 and later served for the match, but lost 3-6 7-5 6-0. By the semi-final stage, none of the eight players left in either singles draw had won a major.

Chwalinska's run and Andreeva's breakthrough

The surprise of the fortnight was Chwalinska. Ranked No 114 and playing in the main draw at Roland-Garros for the first time, the 24-year-old left-hander came through qualifying and beat Shnaider 7-6(4) 6-4 in the semi-finals. She became the first qualifier to reach the final in Paris, and only the second in the Open Era to reach any major final, after Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. "It's like a dream, honestly," she told the WTA.

Andreeva, seeded eighth, had beaten Kostyuk 6-1 6-3 in the other semi-final. In the final, Chwalinska led 3-2 before the Russian won nine games in a row on her way to a 6-3 6-2 win in one hour and 22 minutes. At 19, she became the youngest women's champion in Paris since Monica Seles in 1992. "It's been a big dream of mine and I can't believe I'm holding this trophy right now," she said, according to the tournament's website.

Zverev finally gets over the line

Zverev, the second seed, reached his fourth major final by beating Jakub Mensik 7-5 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the semi-finals. Cobolli, seeded tenth, did not need to play his: fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi withdrew, sending the 24-year-old into his first Grand Slam final.

The final, on 7 June, swung back and forth. Zverev took the first set 6-1, Cobolli levelled, and the German moved ahead again. In the fourth-set tie-break Zverev came within three points of the title, but Cobolli recovered to win it 7-5. The decider was one-way traffic, and Zverev completed a 6-1 4-6 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1 victory.

It ended a long wait. Zverev, 29, had lost his three previous major finals: the 2020 US Open, Roland-Garros in 2024 and the 2025 Australian Open. He became the first German man to win the title in Paris in the Open Era, and the first German man to win any major singles title since Boris Becker at the 1996 Australian Open. "Now you've achieved your dream, let me win the next time," Cobolli told him during the ceremony, as reported by rolandgarros.com.

What it meant for the season

Paris turned out to be the start of Zverev's best summer. He reached the Wimbledon final in July, where he lost to Sinner, and then won the US Open in September by beating Ben Shelton 6-3 7-6 5-7 6-2 for his second major of the year.

Andreeva's title confirmed her as a leading contender at the majors, while Chwalinska's run took her from the qualifying rounds to the biggest stage in women's clay-court tennis. Her title also meant that Melbourne and Paris produced two different women's champions, a pattern that continued when Linda Noskova won Wimbledon in July.