Rafael Nadal has sent a heartfelt message to both Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobolli after the final at the 2026 French Open.
Zverev ended his wait for an elusive maiden Grand Slam title as he overcame Cobolli in a tension-filled five-set championship match at Roland Garros.
The world No 3 also downed Benjamin Bonzi, Tomas Machac, Quentin Halys, Jesper de Jong, Rafael Jodar and Jakub Mensik during his run at the clay-court major.
The 29-year-old German’s victory comes after he suffered painful defeats in the finals at the 2020 US Open, the 2024 French Open and the 2025 Australian Open.
Nadal, who won a record 14 Roland Garros titles, took to X/Twitter to congratulate Zverev.
“Congratulations, @AlexZverev on winning @rolandgarros! So well deserved after all the hard work and perseverance.
“You’ve been chasing your first Grand Slam for a long time, and you absolutely deserve it!”
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The legendary Spaniard added: “And congratulations to Flavio as well for a fantastic tournament!”
Nadal and Zverev met in the semi-finals at the 2022 French Open, when the latter was forced to retire in the second set due to a horrific ankle injury.
They played again in the first round at Roland Garros in 2024, and Zverev defeated Nadal in what was the 22-time Grand Slam winner’s last-ever match at the tournament.
Zverev received advice from Nadal last year
After opening up about his mental struggles following an opening round exit at Wimbledon last year, Zverev spent 10 days training at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca ahead of the North American hard-court swing.
Zverev revealed he gained “some great insight” after spending hours talking to both Rafael Nadal and his uncle and former coach, Toni Nadal.
“It’s funny, actually after Wimbledon he contacted me, Uncle Toni,” Zverev explained.
“I was very thankful for him to do that. We spoke on the phone for about an hour and a half, and sent a few messages back and forth, and then, yeah, decided to go to Mallorca to see him.
“But he’s a personality that I think, yeah, he’s a great coach, no question about that, but he’s a personality that I think can give you a lot of confidence as well, because when he speaks and when Rafa speaks, you listen.
“Yeah, they definitely spent a lot of hours talking to me, and they gave me some great insight. Rafa gave me some great insight of what it actually is like to play against me, because he saw me as a player, he saw me now as a spectator as well.
“It was very helpful, and again, we spent hours and hours talking, sometimes until past midnight in some dinners and stuff like that. So it was great to be there.”
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