many way

PARIS — Alexander Zverev is no longer one of the best players never to win a major title.

He’s finally a Grand Slam champion.

In his fourth major final, Zverev beat Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 for the French Open title on Sunday.

It was a unique opportunity for Zverev without Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz across the net and the third-ranked German took full advantage on the red clay of Roland Garros.

When Cobolli missed an overhead on the second championship point after more than four hours of the five-set encounter, Zverev dropped on his back to the clay and covered his face with his hands as he began sobbing. When he got up, with his shirt and arms covered in clay, Zverev put his hands back on his face before he lifted both arms in celebration.

When Zverev was handed the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy, he lifted it with both hands and let out a liberating roar.

“This court is so special to me in so many ways. I’ve had the best moments of my life on this court; I had the worst moment of my life on these courts,” Zverev said, referring to when he was injured and pushed off on a wheelchair during a semifinal against Rafael Nadal in 2022.

“I was laying in that corner over there four years ago with seven broken ligaments and two fractured bones,” Zverev said. “I lost a Grand Slam final here two years ago but now finally it’s a happy end.”

Zverev has now joined an elite group of players that captured their first major in their fourth final: Eight-time major champion Andre Agassi, 2001 Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic and 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem.

No Sinner or Alcaraz

Zverev had been an overwhelming favorite for the title ever since the top-ranked Sinner struggled in the first week’s heat wave and wasted a two set and 5-1 lead against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the second round. A day later, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic was also eliminated.

Alcaraz, the two-time reigning champion, withdrew before the tournament with an injured right wrist.

It was Zverev’s second French Open final, having wasted a lead of two sets to one against Alcaraz in the 2024 championship match.

Zverev had an even bigger advantage — two sets to none — in the 2020 U.S. Open final and lost that one, too, to Thiem. He was also beaten in straight sets by Sinner in the 2025 Australian Open final.

It was the 25th title of Zverev’s career.

Cobolli’s first Slam final

The 14th-ranked Cobolli had never been past a Grand Slam quarterfinal until this week. He was attempting to become the first Italian man to raise the singles trophy at Roland Garros since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.

Cobolli comes from the same tennis club in Rome as Panatta did and Panatta was asked by tournament organizers to present the trophy to the champion to celebrate the anniversary of his 1976 triumph.

The honors, however, went to Zverev.

Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva won the women’s singles trophy on Saturday.

Zverev took control early on

The match was played in perfect conditions and Zverev’s game was almost flawless at the start.

Zverev broke Cobolli’s serve in a long opening game when Cobolli shanked a forehand into the first row of the stands. The break came after Zverev had a bit of luck when a backhand return hit the net but dribbled over on game point for Cobolli.

A group of women in the stands held up letters to form Zverev’s nickname: “Sascha.”

Cobolli likes to stand way over near the corner of the court and hit big kick serves out wide into the ad court. Zverev knew what was coming and returned one such kick serve early in the first set with a backhand that he wrapped around the outside of the net post. Cobolli ended up winning the point, but it was a message from Zverev that he knew how to handle his opponent’s tactics.

The next time Zverev hit a wrap-around-the-net-post return, Cobolli couldn’t handle it and Zverev won the point.

Cobolli’s supporters in his box were all dressed in blue, the color of Italy’s national teams, and as Cobolli worked his way back into the match, there were chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole; Flavio, Flavio.”

After Zverev held for a 6-5 lead in the fourth, he had his upper right leg treated by a trainer. Then Zverev wasted a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker, which Cobolli concluded with a forehand winner up the line that produced a roar from the crowd.

But Cobolli appeared to run out of energy in the fifth, running down a drop shot only for Zverev to then pass him up the line for a 3-0 lead and a double break.

Abuse allegations

Moments after Zverev’s previous Grand Slam final in Australia in 2025, a person in the stadium yelled out the names of two of his ex-girlfriends who accused him of physical abuse.

One case was resolved following an agreement between German prosecutors, lawyers for Zverev and his former partner. The ATP Tour investigated another case and concluded there was insufficient evidence.

Dampf writes for the Associated Press. Samuel Petrequin and Jerome Pugmire contributed to this report.

There she stands, in that iconic hot pink gown, arms thrown open wide as if to both offer herself to the world and embrace what the world offers — love, applause, admiration and diamonds, which are, as she sang from the body-hugging confines of that pink silk in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” a girl’s best friend.

It isn’t her, of course, though it is the dress, designed by William Travilla and now a part of the new “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon” installation at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Opening Sunday, it is just one of many exhibitions and events timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Monroe’s birth.

More than 60 years after her death, Monroe still glows brightly in the Hollywood firmament. Her career only lasted 17 years, but during that time she dazzled so brightly that her image, and all that has been projected onto it, remains burned into our collective line of vision, an unfading afterimage of a bursting star.

As the Academy Museum’s exhibit underlines, Marilyn Monroe was a pioneer in many ways.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

Her death — at 36 by way of overdose — did much to cement her legacy, generating international headlines and then a multitude of conspiracy theories, many of them involving powerful men, including members of the equally mythic Kennedy family.

Tragedy and mystery are powerful binding agents, but they do not quite explain the tower of books that have been, and continue to be, written about her (including several out this year) or the many films made about her life or the art she has inspired, from Andy Warhol’s iconic silkscreen “Marilyn Diptych” (done a year after her death) to Seward Johnson’s massive statue “Forever Marilyn,” which, after some controversy, made its forever home in Palm Springs five years ago.

Marilyn Monroe’s personal items on display include parts of her makeup regimen.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

As the Academy Museum’s exhibit underlines, Monroe was a pioneer in many ways. In the repressive ‘50s, she was sex positive and spoke openly about psychotherapy and the vagaries of fame. She often defied studio heads, was one of the first actresses to start her own production company and demanded approval of her many photo sessions.

She had multiple marriages, problems with drugs and alcohol and a reputation for being difficult on set, but she was unafraid to both call out the press and banter with them.

Still, she is not seen by the masses as a pioneer, a term that brings to mind scientists and suffragettes. No, Monroe remains a mesmerizing, radiant symbol — of beauty, glamour, sensuality, a life force so rare that it could not be expected to survive long in a world full of envy and petty demands.

In putting together “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon,” associate curator Sophia Serrano spoke with many devoted fans, including those whose collections helped build the exhibit, and they all said the same thing.

More than 60 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe still glows brightly in the Hollywood firmament.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

“Even though she had a tragic ending,” Serrano said, “people would say she is a symbol of resilience. Her story is like a movie — an orphan who makes it big, then loses it all. They see her as battling the studio, wanting to get more nuanced roles and not getting the roles she wanted. … A lot of people latch onto her because she gives them hope.”

In many ways, Monroe is, and was, a piece of art herself, onto which we could project our own longings and adulation. But that art, Serrano says, was created by Monroe, with equal parts natural magnetism and a canny, rigorous sense of her own strengths.

In 1952, when she was a rising star, a journalist realized a nude pin-up being used in calendars and posters was Monroe; she had posed for what is now known as the “Golden Dream” series five years before. Monroe was filming 20th Century Fox’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” at the time and studio head Darryl Zanuck pressured her to deny that the photos were of her.

Monroe did the exact opposite, shrugging it off in an interview, in which she said, “I was broke and I needed the money. … I’m not ashamed of it; I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon” opens Sunday at the Academy Museum.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

Monroe’s unique, and, to a certain extent, self-constructed combination of vulnerability — the wide eyes, the half-open mouth, the child-like voice — and essential grit is what fuels her continued cultural resonance and what forms the guiding principal for the Academy Museum’s exhibit.

An exhibit on the life and legacy of Marilyn Monroe could fill an entire museum so for purposes of this exhibit, Serrano and her team chose objects that were relevant to her life. This being the Academy Museum, much of it focuses on her career in film. Costumes from her various movies (including the original exhibition copy of the famous white dress from “The Seven Year Itch”) occupy a big portion, in part, Serrano says, because Monroe was so often involved in their design.

“She was so smart, looking at these costumes,” Serrano says. “She was obviously Fox’s star for Cinemascope — she’s how they marketed the new technology and she didn’t like how certain silhouettes looked so she would not wear A-lines in Cinemascope because she thought the effect was unflattering. She really paid attention to how things worked and then knew how to control and edit and manage.”

Costumes from Marilyn Monroe’s various movies.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

The pink gown from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” has its own story. Monroe’s character was originally to appear in bejeweled hot pants (also on display), but when the Golden Dream “scandal” broke, Zanuck demanded that she wear something less revealing.

Many personal items are on display as well, including the shoes she wore to her wedding to Joe DiMaggio, a rare apology from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, marked-up scripts and parts of her makeup regimen (including a face-slimming mask she wore after being told she had a double chin). The love-hate relationship she had with the press is well represented by newspaper clippings and newsreels.

Marilyn Monroe’s famous white dress from “The Seven Year Itch.”

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

A whole room is devoted to scenes from her more famous films and an entire long wall to countless photographs. “She understood the camera better than anyone,” Serrano says, echoing observations made by photographers and actors who worked with her, including Laurence Olivier, who famously did not get along with Monroe during the filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

Her reputation as being difficult on certain sets is also documented in a rather infuriating series of telegrams between director Billy Wilder complaining to her then-husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and Miller responding in defense of his wife.

It is a well-crafted glimpse at Monroe as a totality, including pieces from her Brentwood home and some of her own clothing, which Serrano says was far simpler than the gowns and suits she was photographed in. “Her persona was carefully constructed. She knew how to give just enough, to create the illusion of something.”

A whole room is devoted to scenes from her more famous films and an entire long wall to countless photographs.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

And maybe that is the reason why Monroe continues to fascinate. Yes, she owned her beauty and sexuality with a boldness that stands out even now. Her relationship with the camera remains unparalleled — when she is in frame, it is almost impossible to look away. Her hip-swaying walk remains iconic and also, perhaps, revealing. It was achieved by putting one foot directly in front of the other, much like a tight-rope walker.

Which in many ways Monroe was, treading the line, invisible to the rest of us, between innocence and worldliness, between vulnerability and power.

The tension between the human need for both love and self-determination powers both art and madness, but never was it so tangibly brought to life than by Marilyn Monroe. Art and artist, creation and creator, she left behind a now-century-old mystery we’re still trying to unravel.