Second seed Alexander Zverev beat the 26th seed Jakub Mensik in four sets on Friday to advance to the men's singles final at the French Open in Paris.
Issued on: 05/06/2026 - 18:24
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Zverev won 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in just under three hours to progress to his second final at the Stade Roland Garros in three years. In 2024, the 29-year-old German lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the final and last year he went down to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals. With Alcaraz missing due to injury, Djokovic dispatched and top seed Jannik Sinner out in a freak result in the second round, Zverev has carried the pressure of favourite for most of the tournament. He wore the mantle well in the opening exchanges with his 20-year-old opponent who had disposed of the eighth seed Alex de Minaur in the third round as well as the 11th seed Andrey Rublev on the way to his first semi-final at a Grand Slam. Even opening set It was level pegging in the opening set until a fourth backhand winner provided Zverev with a break point. He capitalised to give himself the chance to serve for the opener after 57 minutes. The German wrapped it up on the hour mark on the back of two crunching forehand winners and his third ace of the set.
