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Friendship to be forgotten with French Open on the line

How do professional athletes manage to be friends while competing for the sport's biggest prizes?

The current generation of tennis players seem to be closer than ever, with French Open finalists Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobolli among those who are good mates.

But both men insist it will not be difficult to separate their personal friendship from their professional focus - which on Sunday will be winning a Grand Slam title for the first time.

Second seed Zverev and Italian 10th seed Cobolli will meet for a third time on clay this season, with Cobolli having won in Munich before Zverev beat him in Madrid at the next tournament.

The pair became friends when they were team-mates at the 2024 Laver Cup - where an Europe side takes on a World team - and have gone on to form what Zverev calls a "natural" bond.

After his Roland Garros semi-final, Zverev described how 24-year-old Cobolli regularly picks his brains about the sport.

Cobolli said they enjoy chatting about movies, while their fathers - who are also their coaches - are friendly.

"He's a great player, a great guy," said Zverev.

"I like him. I like his dad a lot. They are very good people. It's his first final, so I'm happy for him that he reached it."

Germany's Zverev is the favourite to finally land the major title he has long been predicted to win - although the 29-year-old has lost his three previous Grand Slam finals, including the Roland Garros championship match two years ago.

"When you play a Grand Slam final, it's not that difficult [to put friendship aside] because it means you reached the best stage in tennis," Zverev said.

"You still try to beat each other and you still try to win, but that's OK."

Cobolli was due to play another friend in the semi-finals, but he received a walkover when compatriot Matteo Arnaldi withdrew because of a virus.

It means Cobolli has not played a competitive match since Wednesday.

"I will be ready but I also know that I will be fresh. Maybe [not playing] helped, maybe not. I will tell you after the final," Cobolli said.

Why Zverev cannot afford to blow golden opportunity

There has been a sense of opportunity in Paris after the Roland Garros men's draw quickly became a free for all.

With two-time reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz out injured, many predicted a title procession for world number one Jannik Sinner.

Sinner's second-round loss to Argentina's Juan Manuel Cerundolo blew the draw wide open, before 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic's early exit guaranteed a first-time men's major winner.

This is a golden chance that Zverev, particularly, cannot afford to let slip.

Once Sinner and Djokovic were out of the way, Zverev took over as the clear front-runner - but he has scar tissue from his previous Grand Slam final defeats.

Alexander Zverev hugs Flavio Cobolli after their match at the 2026 Madrid Open

At the 2020 US Open, Zverev let a two-set lead slip against Austria's Dominic Thiem - another close friend.

Zverev came up against a better opponent in Alcaraz at the 2024 French Open - although he did lead the Spaniard by two sets to one - and he was undone by Sinner at last year's Australian Open.

The emergence of Alcaraz and Sinner meant many thought Zverev - who said he felt mentally "empty" a year ago - had missed his chance to land a major.

Zverev insists he has consigned those previous experiences to the past.

And, for the first time, he will face an opponent without past experience of playing in a major final.

Zverev has looked composed in his past two matches against Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar and Czech 26th seed Jakub Mensik.

Since taking over as the clear title favourite he has claimed he "doesn't care" about the expectation.

"I focus on the next match and on the opponent as they cross the net, and that's the only thing that I can control," Zverev said.

Superstition is the way for Cobolli

If Italy was going to have a men's finalist, Sinner was the obvious pick after claiming the Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome titles in the lead-up to Roland Garros.

Once he was eliminated, it was difficult to predict who would emerge from the top half of the men's draw.

Ultimately it was Cobolli, who had never gone beyond the Paris third round until this year.

The European clay-court swing had given mixed messages about his chances at Roland Garros.

Reaching the Munich final and Madrid quarter-finals offered encouraging signs, but expectations were tempered by early exits in Rome and Hamburg.

Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi sit apart at their French Open news conference

Does making such a deep run for the first time leave Cobolli swinging freely? Or will the sense of occasion and opportunity bring more tension?

"It depends how you live this kind of thing. I never put pressure on myself," said Cobolli, who was a promising footballer in Roma's academy before focusing on tennis.

"I like to live the moment like if I was a kid, just with big passion and a big smile."

Cobolli jokes that his progress in Paris is also down to his superstitious nature.

Over the past fortnight he has stuck to a winning routine - thanking the crowd in French, eating at the same restaurant every night and showering in the Roland Garros cubicle that 14-time champion Rafael Nadal always used.

"I'm a little bit [superstitious] but not crazy - this week I'm a little bit more crazy than the others," Cobolli added.

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