Alexander Zverev Survives Five-Set Thriller at US Open
Alexander Zverev walked into New York as a Grand Slam champion and the man everyone circled as the one to beat. He very nearly walked straight back out on the first night.
The top seed was dragged to the edge of disaster by Lorenzo Sonego in a brutal, late-night first-round epic at the US Open, eventually clawing his way through 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 in a contest that ran for almost five hours and bled into the early hours of Wednesday.
For a player arriving with the aura of a new French Open winner, and with Jannik Sinner absent and Carlos Alcaraz only just back from injury, this was supposed to be a statement opener. It was. Just not the kind Zverev had in mind.
Sonego bites back
The start belonged to the German, at least on the scoreboard. He edged the first set 6-4, but even there the warning signs flickered. Zverev created seven break points and converted only one, letting Sonego hang around, grow in confidence, and feel the rhythm of the night.
The Italian, ranked 89 in the world, seized that invitation in the second set. He broke early, ripped into his forehand, and turned the match into a street fight. Serving with authority, he closed the set to love, sealing it with an ace that cut through the New York air and flipped the momentum.
Suddenly, the favourite looked tight. The outsider looked liberated.
A double fault and a deep hole
The third set swung wildly. Both men traded blows, games, and glances at the player box. Neither blinked on serve, and the tension built towards the tiebreak.
That was where Zverev flinched.
At 7-7, with the breaker on a knife edge, he produced a double fault that felt like a gut punch. Sonego pounced, grabbed the mini-break, and with it the set. From one set up, Zverev now trailed 2-1 and stared at the kind of first-round exit that haunts top seeds.
The stadium could feel it. So could he.
Two points from the brink
The fourth set turned into a test of nerve. The pair traded breaks, the rallies stretched, and the clock kept ticking. Zverev’s forehand misfired at times, Sonego’s energy refused to dip, and the match drifted dangerously close to the point of no return for the German.
Then came the moment that defined his night: Zverev stood just two points from defeat.
He held. Somehow. A crucial service game steadied his hands, and with it his belief. The pressure shifted, subtly at first, then decisively. Zverev broke Sonego’s serve and dragged the match into a deciding set, roaring more at himself than at the crowd.
The favourite had survived the first storm. One more set would decide if he could survive the night.
Zverev finishes the job
By the fifth, the damage of nearly five hours of combat showed most clearly on Sonego. The Italian’s legs slowed, his first-serve percentage dipped, and the explosive shot-making that had threatened an upset began to fade.
Zverev, sensing the opening at last, tightened his game and leaned on his weight of shot. The rallies shortened. The errors dropped. The top seed finally looked like the major champion he now is, completing the turnaround 6-4 in the decider as Sonego’s resistance ebbed away.
There was more relief than celebration at the end. Zverev knew exactly how close he had come to an unwanted slice of history: becoming the first top seed to lose in the opening round of a Grand Slam since Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003.
“I’m just happy I won, that’s it,” he said, summing up a night that felt more like survival than dominance. “I think it was an incredible battle, lots of ups and downs, nearly five hours. I think it was my longest first-round match at a Grand Slam. He would have beaten a lot of players but I’m happy to be through.”
Happy, and warned.
The US Open has already told Zverev one thing: this campaign will not be handed to him. He will have to fight for every inch.
