Alexander Zverev Survives Epic First-Round Battle at US Open

Alexander Zverev walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium looking less like a top seed cruising through an opening round and more like a man who had just escaped. Because he had.

In a match that bled into the early hours of Wednesday and pushed close to five hours, the new French Open champion was dragged to the edge by Lorenzo Sonego before clawing out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 win that felt far more like a second week epic than a first-round formality.

A top seed under real threat

Zverev arrived in New York with a different kind of target on his back. This is his first Grand Slam since finally breaking through in Paris, and with world No. 1 Jannik Sinner absent and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz only just back from injury, the German has been cast as the man to beat.

For long stretches on Tuesday night, he looked more like the man about to go home.

He began well enough, taking the opening set 6-4, but even that came with warning signs. Zverev generated seven break points and converted only one, letting Sonego hang around and find rhythm. The Italian, ranked 89 in the world but never short on swagger, sensed the opportunity.

The second set swung sharply. Sonego broke early, seized the baseline, and never loosened his grip. He served it out to love, finishing with an ace that snapped the match wide open and shifted the mood inside the stadium. The top seed was in a fight.

Sonego seizes control

The third set turned into a tug of war. Neither man could fully pull away, the rallies stretching, the tension thickening. It always felt destined for a tiebreak, and when it arrived, Sonego stayed bold while Zverev blinked.

At 7–7 in the breaker, Zverev double-faulted. One loose swing of the arm, one jolt of disbelief. Sonego pounced on the opening and closed it out, surging ahead two sets to one and planting the upset firmly on the table.

Now it was the top seed chasing, not controlling.

Zverev on the brink

The fourth set carried the feel of a season tilting. They traded breaks, neither player able to fully settle. Sonego kept attacking, kept asking questions. Zverev, suddenly tight, kept having to answer.

Then came the moment. Zverev stood two points from defeat, his tournament in danger of ending in the most jarring fashion: as the first top seed to lose in the opening round of a major since Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003.

He refused to let that statistic attach itself to his name.

The German dug in, held serve under suffocating pressure, then struck. He broke Sonego in the very next game, ripping the momentum away just as the Italian could almost touch the finish line. From there, Zverev steadied, served out the set 7-5, and dragged the contest into a deciding fifth.

The escape act was on.

The final push

By the fifth set, the toll of the night showed. Sonego, who had matched Zverev blow for blow for nearly four hours, began to fade. The legs that had chased down everything in the second and third no longer carried him quite as quickly. The German sensed it.

Zverev tightened his patterns, cut out the loose points, and leaned on his heavier weight of shot. The rallies shortened. The errors from the other side of the net crept in. One break was all he needed, and when it came, Sonego had little left to mount a final surge.

Zverev closed it out 6-4 in the fifth, completing a comeback that was more about survival than statement. No fist-pumping lap of honour, no grand declarations. Just a blunt admission.

"I'm just happy I won, that's it," he said afterwards. “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 relieved.

He remains in the draw, still the man many expect to carry this US Open in the absence of Sinner and the uncertainty around Alcaraz’s fitness. But this was a stark reminder: being the favourite on paper means nothing at 2 a.m. under the lights, when an unseeded opponent refuses to go away and the line between contender and casualty shrinks to a couple of points.

Zverev survived that line. The question now is what this near-miss does to his campaign – a warning shot, or the kind of brutal early test that forges a champion’s run.