Alexander Zverev entered the US Open as the top seed at a major for the very first time in his career. He ultimately needed 4 hours and 53 minutes to survive a grueling late-night marathon against Lorenzo Sonego. The resulting 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 victory stretched to nearly 2 a.m. before a winner was finally decided. This incredibly narrow escape prompted the top seed to offer massive praise to his defeated Italian opponent.

Zverev completely refused to downplay how dangerously close he came to suffering a catastrophic first-round elimination.

“I think he’s an incredible player who struggled this year, and it’s as simple as that sometimes,” Zverev said. “Today he played like he normally plays, and he’s an amazing tennis player. For me has an amazing serve, amazing forehand. He can return so quickly.”

He then specifically detailed how the Italian aggressively attacked his own elite serving mechanics.

“I would say I would have one of the fastest second serves on tour, and he was attacking it all the time,” Zverev continued. “So he played amazing. I have to give credit to him, but yeah, I’m just happy that in the end I managed to win.”

Sonego shockingly dominated several statistical categories despite entering the tournament ranked 89th in the world. This statistical inversion nearly triggered the biggest upset of the entire competition.

The Italian challenger outpaced Zverev in total aces, firing 16 to the German’s 12 while simultaneously producing fewer double-faults. Zverev also experienced a massive drop in his usual first-serve percentage, landing just 66 percent compared to his standard 75 percent average. Sascha managed to generate 22 break point opportunities but struggled massively to capitalize, converting only five throughout the entire match. The tense battle ultimately hinged on a double fault during the final set.

The turning point came in the fifth game of the final set when Sonego made his biggest error of the night, a double fault on break point, giving Zverev the opening he needed. From there, the German, even without his best serve, held his nerve to close out the final set comfortably, 6-4. 

“I think there’s definitely room for improvement,” Zverev was candid about where his own game slipped during the marathon. “I think tonight, funny enough, I think I missed a few more backhands than I usually do. That’s something that doesn’t happen very often. But definitely something that maybe I can adjust a little bit and hopefully moving forward it will be better.” 

Zverev’s call on Sonego was not only generous but also accurate. The Italian arrived in New York ranked 89th in the world and carrying a losing record for the season of 11-14, a steep fall from the career-high No. 21 he reached back in 2021. But the one who appeared at Arthur Ashe was far from the player who had a bad year. 

Sonego has been to a major quarterfinal before, reaching the last eight at the 2025 Australian Open by beating the likes of Stan Wawrinka along the way, and also has a win on his name against then-world No. 1 Novak Djokovic back in 2020. The night against the top seed, all of that came together, and Sascha knew it better than anyone.

A brutal survival that Zverev actually needed

For a match this physically taxing, Zverev framed the result less as a warning sign and more as exactly the kind of test his season had been missing. 

“Overall, I think it was a great, tough battle, and I think it was a match that I needed after the last couple of weeks,” he said, a nod to the early exits that marked his hard-court swing through Montreal and Cincinnati heading into New York.

Zverev remains the only player to rally from two sets down to win a US Open semifinal and then blow a two-set lead in the final, back in 2020, falling to Dominic Thiem after being just two points from the title. 

This time, it was Sonego who came within two points of the win, on three separate occasions, before Zverev found a way through. The score flipped, but the margins were razor-thin. A game this strenuous will leave Zverev physically exhausted over the coming fortnight – but the psychological boost is going to be far more valuable than the physical. 

Alexander Zverev is only the third German in history to be the top seed at a major, after Boris Becker at Wimbledon in 1987 and Gottfried von Cramm at the French Open in 1935. With the win over Sonego, he also became the third player this decade to reach 100 Grand Slam match wins, joining Novak Djokovic on 129 and Jannik Sinner on 100. It follows a journey that saw him exit in the third round at last year’s US Open to a semifinal finish at this year’s Australian Open, his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, and his first Wimbledon final appearance since.

Zverev now moves on to face France’s Quentin Halys, a player he has already beaten twice this season, including a four-set win on Halys’ preferred clay enroute to that Roland Garros title.