Alexander Zverev punished in French Open final as incident leaves commentators furious | Tennis | Sport

Alexander Zverev was given a time violation in the fourth set of the 2026 French Open final against Flavio Cobolli. Zverev was chasing his first-ever Grand Slam title in what was the 29-year-old’s fourth major final.

He had found himself a set away from achieving his dream after just three played, but Cobolli pushed hard and dragged himself back into the contest. And it was in the fourth when the incident involving Zverev took place – one that ended up with him receiving a time violation.

Cobolli was serving for the set at 5-4, but before the game, Zverev was seen grabbing his leg. Jim Courier hypothesised on TNT Sports coverage that it was down to nervousness and being tired. The German won the point to take it to 5-5, and during the time between points, he was seen alongside Marcelo Melo – a Brazilian doubles player and good friend of Zverev’s.

Melo had some medication for Zverev to take, which left the commentators dumbfounded it was allowed to happen. Courier said: “This is unprecedented to me. I have never seen a player be allowed to even engage with another player. Marcelo Melo is not part of the medical staff.

“What are they doing? That’s one problem with that, but the biggest issue is… what is Zverev dealing with?”

Earlier in the match, Zverev had to give himself an insulin shot, with the Hamburg-born star having spent his life as a Type 1 diabetic.

Zverev had raced to a first-set lead, demolishing the Italian 6-1 in the opener. It looked as if the French Open final could be a short-lived affair, but Cobolli held his nerve in the second to level things up with a 6-4 set win.

By this point, a real contest had emerged between the two finalists, and it wasn’t until the final game of the third set that Zverev eventually broke Cobolli to go 2-1 up. Now, just a set away from his first-ever Grand Slam title, Zverev could basically reach out and touch the Coupe des Mousquetaires.

But Cobolli had other ideas, as he dug deep to cling on and win the fourth set via a nail-biting tiebreak to take the French Open final into a deciding set.