Legend returns: Ex-Roland Garros champ to present the trophy to Alexander Zverev or Flavio Cobolli after the final

French Open Final set as Alexander Zverev faces Flavio Cobolli

Alexander Zverev is set to face Flavio Cobolli in Sunday’s French Open final.

The two players are still looking for their first major title, but that will change when they meet at Roland Garros. Adriano Panatta, who won the tournament back in 1976, will present the trophy to this year’s champion.

Cobolli has made an impression this year, advancing to his first Slam final after making it as far as the third round at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Zverev has reached Grand Slam finals before, but this is his first trip to the title match at Roland Garros.

French Open flashback: Panatta ended 50-year Italian Title drought

It’s been five decades since Panatta went to Paris with a single goal in mind: winning the French Open. Panatta was already familiar with Roland Garros, having played there since 1969. While he’d never made it past the semis, he’d always looked comfortable on the clay.

The eighth seed wasn’t going to let anyone stop him that year. Even when matches got tight, he found a way to push through.

His campaign didn’t start smoothly. In the opening round, Panatta faced Pavel Hut’ka of Czechoslovakia and dropped the first set 6-2. He then responded by taking the next two sets by the same scoreline before Hut’ka levelled things with a dominant 6-0 fourth set.

The deciding fifth set turned into a marathon, but Panatta eventually prevailed 12-10 to reach round two. From there, his path got easier for a while. He beat Japan’s Jun Kuki and another Czechoslovakian, Jiri Hrebec, both in straight sets.

A four-set victory over Zeljko Franulovic followed, setting up a high-profile quarter-final against top-seeded Bjorn Borg, who had won the previous two editions of Roland Garros.

Borg managed to pull one set back at 6-2 but couldn’t complete the comeback as Panatta sealed the upset in a fourth-set tiebreaker to move into the semi-finals, where he controlled Eddie Dibbs of America from start to finish.

In his first Grand Slam final against Harold Solomon, another American, Panatta claimed the first two sets and came through after dropping one more set before closing it out in four.

Sinner surprised many when he exited early this year following a defeat against Juan Manuel Cerundolo in round two, but fellow Italian Cobolli has provided plenty of reason for hope again this season.

How close have Italian men been to winning Roland Garros since Adriano Panatta’s 1976 title?

It wasn’t until Jannik Sinner faced Carlos Alcaraz in the final last year that another Italian man appeared again. And he couldn’t have come closer without actually winning it.

Sinner had three championship points, but lost control of the match and was beaten in one of the all-time great five-set battles.

With Alcaraz sidelined by injury this year, many saw it as Sinner’s chance to make amends. That will have to wait.

Flavio Cobolli hopes to seize the opportunity instead. Whether he can pull it off remains to be seen.

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