Tennis-Zverev and Andreeva ride Paris highs into Wimbledon

Newly-crowned French Open champions Alexander Zverev and Mirra Andreeva aim to leverage their Roland Garros breakthroughs into Wimbledon title bids.

Newly-crowned first-time Grand Slam champions Alexander Zverev and Mirra Andreeva hope the euphoria of ​their Roland Garros breakthroughs can fuel Wimbledon title bids.

Germany's Zverev finally took ​himself off the list of the best players never to ‌win ​a major when he beat Flavio Cobolli to claim the French Open title three weeks ago. It took the 29-year-old 41 attempts to capture his first Slam, while 19-year-old Andreeva needed only 13 starts to win her maiden major, outclassing Poland's ‌Maja Chwalinska in Paris.

Neither has had much time to digest their success and while Andreeva described winning Slams as "a little addiction", Zverev said little had changed. "I think people always think that once you win a Grand Slam, your life changes in a way. I kind of figured out it really doesn't," he told reporters on Saturday.

"For me, I enjoy ‌certain things outside the court. I will keep enjoying them, whether it's going to play golf with my friends or going to a kids' club with my ‌daughter. Those things don't really change that much. "Of course there is some satisfaction inside of me because it's something I was fighting for my entire career. But you continue living your life. As you can see, two weeks later we're at Wimbledon and preparing for the next Grand Slam."

Having had to wait so long, Zverev will hope success comes like London buses, one immediately after the other, although his ⁠Wimbledon record ​is modest for a player with one of ⁠the biggest serves in the business. He has never gone beyond the fourth round but believes that could change.

"I hope the (London bus) saying will be true for me," said second seed Zverev, who faces a ⁠tricky test in 37th-ranked Alexander Blockx of Belgium in the first round. "But Wimbledon has always been the Grand Slam that I struggled with the most. I do feel different this year. I ​feel like I've had good preparation and I'm playing good tennis. That's all I can control and everything else will follow."

World number five Andreeva reached ⁠the quarter-finals last year in her third Wimbledon main-draw appearance, but is tempering expectations after a whirlwind few weeks since Paris. "The feelings I experienced after winning for the first day and the next few days were ⁠incredible. ​I really want to try and experience them again," the Russian said. "So that’s kind of a little addiction.

"I'm not going to set any expectations on myself because when I do that, sometimes it can go downhill. I'll just focus on how I play every match here." No woman has completed the French Open–Wimbledon double since Serena ⁠Williams in 2015, with Andreeva opening her campaign against Poland's Magda Linette.

Asked what she enjoys most about Wimbledon, Andreeva said it was living in a house rather than ⁠a hotel. "I'm always super excited to come ⁠to London because it has that different vibe. You live in a house. You don't live in a hotel," she said. "I like that I don't see the faces of those players every day.

"Obviously that's a joke! No offence to players. It's just ‌that we spend so much ‌time together, sometimes it's nice that you don't also live at the same place." (Reporting ​by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)