Alexander Zverev narrowly escaped a first-round exit at the US Open, defeating Lorenzo Sonego in a gripping match that lasted nearly five hours, concluding in the early hours of Wednesday. Zverev, the top seed, triumphed with a scoreline of 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4, thereby avoiding the distinction of becoming the first men’s No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round of a Grand Slam event since 2003.
Throughout the evening, Zverev struggled to convert numerous opportunities to break Sonego’s serve, putting him at risk of joining the ranks of top-seeded players who have fallen at this stage. The last occurrence at the US Open was in 1990 when Stefan Edberg lost to Alexander Volkov. After a long and challenging encounter, Zverev finally managed to breach Sonego’s serve late in the match, which lasted 4 hours and 52 minutes.
Reflecting on the match, Zverev remarked, “Nearly five hours for a first round, I think this is the longest first-round match I’ve ever played in my life. Credit to him; he played amazing tennis today and would have likely beaten many other players. However, I’m relieved to have made it through.”
Having secured his first Grand Slam title at the French Open, Zverev reached the Wimbledon final only to lose to top-ranked Jannik Sinner. He became the No. 1 seed at the US Open following Sinner’s withdrawal due to a knee injury.
Against Sonego, Zverev maintained a perfect record of 7-0. Sonego, an Italian player, entered the match with a challenging statistic of one win against nine top-10 players in Grand Slam competitions. His remarkable speed allowed him to retrieve shots that would have been points for Zverev on other occasions, and he delivered critical serves that limited Zverev’s success on break points to just five out of 22.
Zverev made a pivotal break when Sonego served for the third set at 5-4 and seemed poised for victory in the tiebreaker after hitting serves clocked at 133 mph and 141 mph. However, Sonego rallied to win the next two points, taking the tiebreak and the set after Zverev committed a double fault.
In the fourth set, Zverev broke early to lead 3-2, but Sonego quickly responded, breaking back and later putting Zverev under pressure with a 5-4 lead. Yet, Zverev held his serve and managed to break Sonego again, leading 6-5. Before the final set, Sonego received treatment on his wrist but appeared fit to continue. Zverev ultimately secured a critical break to lead 3-2 and maintained his advantage until the end.
Zverev will move on to face Quentin Halys in the second round. Despite the arduous nature of his opening match, he expressed satisfaction with the challenge, stating, “I’m actually happy that I won this kind of battle because this is exactly the match that I needed. I’ve struggled in my last two tournaments, and sometimes overcoming tough matches can lead to good outcomes. I hope that holds true for me in this tournament.”
