Alexander Zverev blows up at line call, Carlos Alcaraz wins maiden Roland-Garros title.

The course of the Roland-Garros final changed in one game early in the fourth set.

Alexander Zverev was a set up and at that moment had all the momentum. Carlos Alcaraz held serve in the first game, but everything changed in the second.

First, Zverev elected not to return an Alcaraz lob that landed in the back corner. He was frustrated with himself and started yelling at his dad in the stands.

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“He should’ve buried that,” Todd Woodbridge quipped in commentary for Nine.

Then with the very next point, he sprayed a forehand that landed wide, and was rightly called out. Zverev blew up at the chair umpire, who came down from his seat to point out the bounce mark.

That was all it took to put the crowd off-side.

“This has been a very strange start to this set for the man that had all the momentum,” Woodbridge said.

“Starts going at his dad, he’s completely lost his concentration. It looked wide, was wide, and he’s drawn the crowd against him. What a move. What a mistake.”

“You don’t need much for the French crowd to turn on you.”

From then on, it was all Alcaraz. He ran away with the match from there to clinch a 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory for a first Roland Garros.

The 21-year-old Spaniard grew up running home from school to watch on TV as countryman Rafael Nadal was accumulating trophy after trophy at Roland-Garros. He just eclipsed Nadal as the youngest man to collect major championships on three surfaces.

Nadal was about 18 months older when he did it.

“Now,” Alcaraz told his parents, who were at Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday, “I am lifting this trophy in front of you.”

Alcaraz adds this one to a collection of hardware that includes triumphs on hard courts at the US Open in 2022 and on grass at Wimbledon in 2023. He is 3-0 in slam finals.

“It’s an amazing career already. You’re already a Hall of Famer. You already achieved so much — and you’re only 21 years old,” said Zverev, a 27-year-old from Germany who is 0-2 in major title matches.

“Incredible player. Not the last time you’re going to win this.”

Zverev, who entered the day on a 12-match winning streak, faltered after surging in front by reeling off the last five games of the third set. Alcaraz’s level dipped during that stretch and he seemed distracted by a complaint over the condition of the clay, telling chair umpire Renaud Lichtenstein it was “unbelievable”.

But Alcaraz reset and ran away with it, taking 12 of the last 15 games while being treated by a trainer at changeovers for an issue with his left leg.

No.3 Alcaraz and No.4 Zverev were making their first appearance in a French Open final. Indeed, this was the first men’s title match at Roland-Garros since 2004 without at least one of Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer.

Nadal lost to Zverev in the first round two weeks ago; Djokovic, a three-time champion, withdrew before the quarterfinals with a knee injury that required surgery. Federer has retired.

There were some jitters at the outset. Zverev started the proceedings with a pair of double-faults — walking to the sideline to change rackets after the second, as though the equipment was the culprit — and eventually got broken.

Alcaraz lost serve immediately, too, framing a forehand that sent the ball into the stands — something he did on a handful of occasions — and double-faulting, trying a so-so drop shot that led to an easy winner for Zverev, then missing a backhand.

Let’s just say they won’t be putting those initial 10 minutes in the Louvre. A lot of the 4-hour, 19-minute match was patchy, littered with unforced errors.

Alcaraz managed to come out strong in the fourth set, grabbing 16 of the first 21 points to move out to a 4-0 edge. The fifth saw more of the same.

Like against Zverev, Alcaraz overturned a deficit of two sets to one in the semifinals against Sinner, making him the first man to capture the title by doing that in each of the last two matches since Manolo Santana — also from Spain — pulled off the trick in 1961.

Returning serves from way back, before moving close to the baseline as points progressed, Alcaraz showed off all of his considerable skills. The drop shots, the artful half-volleys, the intimidating forehands delivered aggressively and accompanied by a loud, one-syllable grunt that sounded like “Eh!” at times and “Uh!” at others.

Alcaraz finished with 27 forehand winners, 20 more than Zverev. Not bad for a guy who arrived in Paris saying he was afraid to hit his forehand at full force because of a recent forearm injury.

He said after the match there were “a lot of doubts” and he was forced to limit his practice time.

In the fifth set, under constant pressure from Alcaraz, Zverev played a poor game that included two miscues plus a double-fault, helping Alcaraz move in front at 2-1. The next game was pivotal and showed the grit and gumption that already have become hallmarks of Alcaraz’s style.

Zverev — who argued about one line call in that game, saying, “There’s no way!” — would hold a total of four break points. He failed to convert any. Alcaraz didn’t let him. After dismissing those chances, Alcaraz wrapped up the game to lead 3-1 with a drop-shot winner.

The crowd roared. Alcaraz held his left index finger to his ear while waving his racket and nodding, seeking even more noise. It arrived. He would break again for 5-2, then served it out and dropped onto his back, caking his shirt with clay — just as Nadal often did after championship point.

Alcaraz first learned to play tennis on the rust-colored slow surface, although he says he prefers hard courts. Alcaraz says he dreamed long ago of adding his own name to the list of Spanish men to win the event, including his coach, 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.

And those red-and-yellow Spanish flags that became such an annual fixture at Chatrier in the era of Nadal were there again Sunday, this time to support Alcaraz.

The difference? The cries of “Ra-fa! Ra-fa!” are now “Car-los! Car-los!”

– With Damien McCartney