Alexander Zverev Advances to US Open Final with Tough Win Over Khachanov

Alexander Zverev walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium with the scoreline of a routine win. Nothing about it felt routine.

The men’s No. 1 seed beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (6) on Friday to reach his second US Open final and a third straight Grand Slam championship match. Straight sets on paper. A scrap in reality.

Zverev in control, Khachanov swinging

The opening set looked like a mismatch. Zverev settled first, served with authority and picked his moments to attack, cruising 6-3 while Khachanov sprayed errors. The Russian finished the set with almost twice as many unforced mistakes as Zverev, a gap that told its own story.

Zverev barely needed to raise his voice, let alone his level. Khachanov obliged with loose forehands, rushed backhands, and half-chances that vanished into the net. The No. 1 seed banked the early advantage, and for a moment it felt like the night might be short.

Khachanov refused that script.

Two tight tiebreaks, one ruthless closer

The unseeded 30-year-old steadied himself in the second set. He held serve with more conviction, found better depth, and began to match Zverev blow for blow from the baseline. The rallies lengthened. The noise inside Arthur Ashe grew.

Zverev still carried the heavier weapons, but Khachanov stopped handing him free points. Games traded hands cleanly, neither man facing the kind of wobble that would crack the set open. It had to be decided in a tiebreak.

There, Zverev’s big-match experience showed. The German navigated the tight moments, edged the breaker 7-6 (7), and walked back to his chair two sets to the good, but hardly cruising.

The third followed the same tense pattern. Both men guarded serve, probing, waiting. Zverev, up 6-5 and trying to shut the door before another tiebreak, suddenly found himself battling something no opponent could control.

The glare, the boos, and the response

As he prepared to serve at 6-5, Zverev marched to the chair and complained to the umpire about glare from the sun. The light, according to the ESPN broadcast, was reflecting off the glass doors of the luxury suites when they were opened, cutting across his line of sight.

The crowd did not enjoy the interruption. Boos and grumbles rolled down from the upper decks. Zverev, clearly bothered, dropped the game. The third set moved into a second tiebreak, tension thickening with every point.

The glare did not disappear. His focus almost did.

Khachanov jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the breaker, sensing a crack. Zverev’s feet slowed, his timing slipped. For a few minutes, the match teetered on the edge of a fourth set and a very different night.

Then the No. 1 seed dug in.

He clawed his way back to 6-6, saving two set points with fearless hitting under pressure. With a place in Sunday’s final on the line, Zverev seized match point and finally put Khachanov away, closing a contest that had grown far tighter than the straight-sets label suggests.

This was not a procession. It was a test of nerve, and he passed it.

A third straight major final – and unfinished business in New York

The win sends Zverev into his second US Open final, four years after his agonizing loss in the 2020 title match. Since lifting his first major trophy at Roland Garros in early June, he has backed up that breakthrough with relentless consistency, now standing in a third consecutive Grand Slam final.

New York, though, is where his story still feels incomplete.

He will walk into Arthur Ashe on Sunday with a chance to rewrite that 2020 ending, this time as the top seed, this time with a major already in his pocket, and this time likely facing a wall of sound in favor of the man across the net.

Zverev knows it. He told ESPN he expects the crowd to side heavily with whoever emerges from the second semifinal, No. 8 seed Ben Shelton or No. 11 seed Frances Tiafoe.

“Especially these two guys, Frances and Ben, crowd favorites here in New York. Everybody loves them,” he said. “Hopefully I can not make the American dream.”

A historic all-American clash awaits

The night session brings an occasion that reaches beyond the scoreboard. Shelton versus Tiafoe is an all-American semifinal loaded with history and significance.

Both men are chasing a first Grand Slam final. The winner will become the first American to reach the men’s US Open final since Taylor Fritz did it in 2024, and will have a shot at becoming the first US men’s champion in New York since Andy Roddick in 2003.

There is more weight to this matchup.

For the first time ever, two Black American men will face each other in a US Open men’s singles semifinal. Whoever advances will be the first Black American man to contest the final here since Arthur Ashe’s last appearance in 1972, on the very court that now bears his name.

The stakes are sporting, cultural, and deeply symbolic. One will walk through that door and straight into a showdown with the world No. 1 on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.

Zverev has his place booked. The question now is simple: will New York be roaring for Shelton or Tiafoe when he walks out to face them for the title?