Alexander Zverev said he hopes winning his first Grand Slam crown at the French Open will unblock the path to more major titles after years of near-misses and heartbreak on the biggest stage.
Zverev broke his major drought at the fourth time of asking by beating Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1 in the Roland Garros final on Sunday.
After painful past defeats in the title-matches at the 2020 US Open, Roland Garros in 2024 and last year's Australian Open, Zverev was considered by many to be the best player never to have won a Grand Slam.
The 29-year-old joked it was "fine" if people now consider him "the worst player to win a Grand Slam" but that he "could not care less".
"Now no matter what happens, I will always be a Grand Slam champion, and nobody can take that away from me," Zverev added.
"To be honest, I'm a little bit drunk already, so I just repeat myself a little bit more than I'm used to. I'm just happy to be sitting next to this trophy."
The Tokyo Olympics gold medallist said having the Coupe des Mousquetaires in his possession would make his future attempts at winning more of tennis' biggest titles less burdensome, mentally.
"For sure this trophy helps the belief a lot," he said.
"That does give me some freedom. It does give me some – maybe my mind will just be a little bit calmer when I play a final, meaning that even if I lose it, I will still be a Grand Slam champion.
"I think this trophy for me is very important, because if I would have lost this one, the self-belief would have gone down a lot. But now that I've won it, I feel like I can do it again."
'HAD TO LET GO'
However, Zverev admitted that the favourite tag he had seemed to carry serenely through most of the tournament did weigh on him during the final against world number 14 Cobolli.
"I was just very tight today. I honestly feel like I've managed the last two weeks extremely well, because with all the losses that happened early on with Jannik (Sinner) going out, with Novak (Djokovic) going out, I managed to stay composed, I managed to stay calm in my mind," he said.
"But then today I feel like I didn't manage so well."
Zverev revealed he experienced "mental cramps" during the match, but in the end they helped him get over the line after four hours and 16 minutes of battle on Court Philippe Chatrier.
"I was a lot more nervous, which at some stage is also human, I think. That's why I say the cramps helped me in a way, because my mind let go," he explained.
"I started swinging more freely. I started hitting the ball a bit more aggressive. All of that, you know, that's because of the cramps. I couldn't focus on being tight anymore. I had to kind of let go. That's why I played the fifth set the way I did."