India, June 7 -- Alexander Zverev slumped on his back on the red dirt, face covered with his palms and tears rolling down. He waved his arms to the crowd, walked up the stairs to hug his father-coach, and then his team.

After taking four hours and 16 minutes to beat 10th-seeded Italian Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 in Sunday's French Open final, the German could barely walk. For him, though, it was all worth it.

These are moments for which Zverev has had to wait a long time. While the old boys' Big Three club continued to hog the Slam share even during the twilight of their active era. While the new phenoms emerged and swept all the Slams over the last couple of years in the Sincaraz era. And even while champions like Domini...