ATP Tour

What were Melo’s first words to best friend Zverev after Roland Garros final?

There is video evidence of Marcelo Melo’s belief in Alexander Zverev’s ability to win a Grand Slam title.

Twelve months ago at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, the former doubles World No. 1 Melo and Zverev sat down for the ATP Tour’s Best Friends series, in which the Brazilian gave a prophetic answer to the question, ‘What is your biggest wish for each other?’

“He knows how much I want to see him winning a Grand Slam,” Melo responded at the time. “I think he deserves it. He’s the one who practises the most during tournaments… I think he and his family deserve it, and I guarantee he is going to achieve it sooner or later.”

One year later, and Melo and Zverev are together again in Halle, where they on Monday earned a first-round doubles win together at the grass ATP 500. One major difference from a year ago? Zverev is now competing as a Grand Slam champion, just as Melo predicted he one day would, after triumphing earlier this month at Roland Garros.

“As I said, it was going to be sooner or later. You can see that in that video,” Melo told ATPTour.com on Sunday in Halle. “I was very happy to be part of it and very happy to be there in the moment. Sascha knew that I always believed in him, always pushed him to be the best. As I said, ‘sooner or later’, and I’m very glad it was sooner!”

The 42-year-old Melo, a 42-time tour-level doubles titlist (including earlier this season with Zverev in Acapulco), was in Zverev’s player box beside Court Phillipe-Chatrier to witness his good friend becoming the first German man to win a major trophy since 1996. He recalled his first interaction with the 29-year-old Zverev after his five-set final victory against Flavio Cobolli.

“’You did it’, were the first words I said to him,” Melo revealed. “‘You did it. You did it.’ Because we always believed he would do it, but to believe and then do is a huge step, and he made it.”

Zverev arrived at Roland Garros with an 0-3 record in major finals, but was soon widely regarded as the favourite to lift the trophy after the second-round exit of Jannik Sinner and a third-round loss for Novak Djokovic. With 2024 and 2025 champion Carlos Alcaraz not competing due to injury, all eyes were suddenly on the German.

“I think he had some tough moments right when he got the news because he knew it was a very good opportunity,” Melo said when asked how Zverev had dealt with the outside ‘noise’ that followed his rivals’ early exits in Paris. “He lost to Alcaraz or Sinner [at many previous Slams], so he saw a huge opportunity and it was not easy, because it was not like he had to handle the pressure for one or two days. It was 10 days.

“He managed, and that’s why he deserves to be a Grand Slam champion for many reasons, including this one. Everybody is playing very good. The final was very good. Cobolli was playing unbelievable tennis, but Sascha had all the pressure on him to win. Cobolli kind of had nothing to lose, but at the same time had just beaten Sascha a couple of weeks before, so it was very nice to see Sascha handling this pressure.”

Melo is more than familiar with Zverev’s on-court abilities: The two friends frequently play doubles together, as they are doing this week in Halle. However, it is the off-court structure behind Zverev that immediately came to Melo’s mind when asked for his initial emotions around the German’s major breakthrough.

“We thought and we believed in him for a long time that he could make it,” Melo said. “I’ve known him for 10 years more or less, and to see him doing that, I was very happy and emotional. Everybody knows the work you have to put together for him to be able to win it and I think one of the best things to have happened was for him to be together with his family there.

“I think for him it means a lot, and I think for me as a friend it means a lot as well, because family is very important for me too. All the effort they put in for him to be able to play, to be able to achieve great results like winning a Grand Slam. I was very happy to be there as well in that moment.”