Munich. The spectators on the sold-out centre court were left almost speechless after this match - it was Flavio Cobolli, not Alexander Zverev, who reached the final of the BMW Open by Bitpanda. And how he deserved this victory! Cobolli played almost flawlessly, the German had no chance at all against the Italian.
"He's a wild player, it's going to be a challenge," Zverev had said about Cobolli before the match, and he really couldn't solve it. The 23-year-old from Florence quickly led 4:1 after a break and took the first set after just 34 minutes. The world number 16 dominated with his cracking forehand in particular.
In the second set, Cobolli took the helpless Alexander Zverev's first service game, then managed a break and led 5:2. Even a re-break, girlfriend Sophia Thomalla and the fans didn't help last year's winner: "My legs weren't there somehow," said Zverev after the match, "it was just too much tennis recently. Nevertheless, he enjoyed playing on the sold-out centre court and was delighted with the support from the crowd: "I hope it will be the same again next year. So Alexander Zverev wants to come back to the BMW Open by Bitpanda and tackle the "record champion" target again, i.e. his fourth victory in Munich.
It got very emotional after the match when the winner, Flavio Cobolli, sat on the bench in tears. The reason was not the magnificent victory (6:3; 6:3) against the world number three, but the grief over the death of a friend yesterday. He would have played and won for him, said Cobolli. He had also played one of, if not the best match of his life.
He will now face Ben Shelton from the USA in tomorrow's final. Last year's finalist beat Alex Molcan from Slovakia in two sets. One break in each set was enough to win 6:3 and 6:4, bringing Ben Shelton very close to his big goal of winning the BMW Open by Bitpanda.
Alexander Zverev's record-breaking victory will be a thing of the past, but there could still be German winners at the BMW open by Bitpanda 2026, namely in the doubles, as Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner have played their way through from the qualifiers to the final. Last year, the two Bavarian-born players made it through to the semi-finals. Schnaitter and Wallner come from US college tennis, have been a permanent duo since 2023 and are ranked among the top 50 in the world. After several titles at Challenger level, the final in Munich is now their greatest success; they attended the tournament as children and could win it today. Their opponents are Theo Arribage and Albano Olivetti from France.
One of the greats of tennis was remembered on the centre court during today's tournament: Niki Pilić (1939-2025). He won five Davis Cup victories with three nations - including three titles with the German team. And they all came to honour their coach: Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Carl-Uwe Steeb, Eric Jelen, Marc-Kevin Goellner, Bernd Karbacher and Patrik Kühnen. Pilić not only left his mark on world tennis like no other, but also on the BMW Open and MTTC Iphitos: he played in the final himself in 1970, later organised the tournament as tournament director for over a decade and remained closely associated with the club as an honorary member for many years.
The finals of the Allianz Para Trophy were played today. In the Open Division, top seed Gustavo Fernandez from Argentina won confidently in two sets (6:4, 6:3) and thus successfully repeated his tournament victory from the inaugural year (2022). In the Quad Division, which was held for the first time, the world number two Sam Schroder from the Netherlands also came out on top. He beat world number three Guy Sasson 6:4, 6:0. Tennis fans were able to watch both divisions at the Allianz Para Trophy for the first time this year and have been able to marvel at the absolute world class in both classes on the courts of the MTTC Iphitos since Thursday.
Stream all matches for free on Joyn
Watch the finals on Centre Court live and free of charge via the streaming app Joyn, including highlights, behind the scenes and news coverage, also on ran.de. The singles final will also be broadcast live on ProSieben Maxx and on Sky pay TV.
