Zverev powers into French Open quarter-finals, as title path opens
Zverev lost only five games after a tense opening set and reached his sixth straight Roland-Garros quarter-final as Sinner and Djokovic fell early.
Alexander Zverev kept his French Open campaign moving with the kind of efficient, low-drama win that reinforces why he is still viewed as the title favourite in Paris. The second seed beat lucky loser Jesper de Jong 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier, reaching the Roland-Garros quarter-finals for the sixth consecutive year and the seventh time in his career at the tournament.
The scoreline mattered as much as the passage itself. Zverev was made to work in the opening set, but he handled the pressure in the tiebreak and then took control quickly, dropping only five games across the final two sets. For a player still chasing a first Grand Slam title, that is the sort of evidence that counts: the service games stayed stable, the composure did not crack when the set tightened, and the match became more one-sided as soon as he found his rhythm. On a day when De Jong was playing on his 26th birthday, the Dutchman could not extend the upset run that had already taken him past Stan Wawrinka in the previous round.
Zverev’s path has also been clarified by what has already gone wrong elsewhere in the draw. World number one Jannik Sinner and 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic have both been eliminated before the quarter-finals, removing the two most obvious reference points for danger in the remaining field. That does not make the route easy, but it does make it more open, and Zverev has the clay record to make the most of it. The French Open has long looked like his best chance to break through, and he already reached the final at Roland-Garros in 2024.
His résumé still reads like that of a player waiting for the final step. Zverev has won 24 ATP titles, including seven Masters crowns, has been crowned ATP Finals champion twice and won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2020. He has now reached 17 Grand Slam quarter-finals overall, a level of consistency that few players can match, yet the missing major remains the defining gap. In Paris, where the tournament runs from 24 May to 7 June at Stade Roland Garros, Zverev keeps building the case that the gap may finally be closing.
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