PARIS — In recent Grand Slam finals, apex predators have ruled the men’s tennis jungle.Every time tennis fans settled in, two immortals were facing off, or one was vanquishing a player a click or two below an all-time great.The past five years have delivered some of the most memorable men’s finals in tennis history. There was Carlos Alcaraz, coming back to topple Novak Djokovic in five sets at Wimbledon in 2023. There was Alcaraz again, this time sharing the court with Jannik Sinner and playing try-to-top-this tennis down the stretch of their five-hour-and-35-minute duel for the French Open title last year on Court Philippe-Chatrier.It ended as only it could have, with Alcaraz sprinting for a magical down-the-line-forehand, his grunt on his stroke morphing into a scream of ecstasy as his lunge for the shot melted into his court-collapse celebration.On match point Sunday evening in Paris, Alexander Zverev lofted a lob to Flavio Cobolli, who had rushed the net in an attempt to push this year’s French Open final one point further. Cobolli craned his neck, drifted back a step or two, rose and shanked an overhead 20 feet off the court.Cobolli and Zverev are massively talented tennis players. They gave every ounce of energy they had over the course of five sets, four hours and 16 minutes for the Coupe des Mousquetaires. When it was over, Zverev was on his back, bathing in the clay. He had survived a topsy-turvy match that had its flashes of greatness, as all tennis matches do, for a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 win and a first Grand Slam title.A work of art it wasn’t, and that’s just the way it goes sometimes. There are no asterisks in tennis history books next to Grand Slam finals that come up short on the magic scale.It’s just a little different, and after the way this year’s French Open unfolded, it was always going to be that way.Alcaraz pulled out of this tournament last month with a wrist injury. Sinner succumbed to illness and cramps in the second round, amid the heat wave of the first week. Brazil’s 19-year-old João Fonseca came from two sets down to take out Djokovic the next day.That busted the draw wide open. The French Open became a contest among mortals, with the ethereal talents of the sport out of the way, trying to seize upon a rare opportunity. They fought to survive as they rarely had before, with more than 30 matches going five sets.Zverev’s Grand Slam final debut came six years ago, at the 2020 U.S. Open. That one went five sets as well, devolving into a slice-fest with Dominic Thiem of Austria, who, like Zverev that day and Cobolli on Sunday, was also trying to find a way to his first Grand Slam title.Down the stretch that night, Zverev’s serve completely abandoned him. He rolled balls in at less than 70 mph. Thiem wasn’t much better, but someone had to win, and it was Thiem who cracked the groundstrokes he needed to fall to the court in ecstasy, in the silence of a near-empty stadium.