Alexander Zverev rallied just in time to avoid becoming the first men's No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament since 2003, edging Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in a US Open match that ended Wednesday morning.
Zverev couldn't cash in on repeated chances to break Sonego's serve for much of the night and was in danger of becoming the first top-seeded man to fall in his first match in a major since Ivo Karlovic beat Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003.
It hasn't happened at the US Open since Stefan Edberg lost to Alexander Volkov in 1990. Zverev finally broke through against Sonego's serve late to pull out the match in 4 hours, 52 minutes.
“Nearly five hours for a first round, I think this is the longest first-round match I’ve ever played in my life,” Zverev said. “So, credit to him. He played amazing tennis today, would have beaten a lot of players for sure, but I’m happy to be through.”
Zverev won his first major title at the French Open, lost to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, then became the No. 1 seed in a major for the first time when Sinner had to withdraw from the US Open with a right knee injury.
Zverev is 7-0 against Sonego, an Italian who came in 1-9 against top-10 men in Grand Slams. But Sonego's speed around the court allowed him to track down balls that on other nights would have been winners, and he came up with enough clutch serves to make Zverev just 5 for 22 on break points for the match.
The German broke when Sonego served for the third set at 5-4 and seemed to be in good shape in the tiebreaker when he hit consecutive serves of 133 mph and 141 mph to take a 7-6 lead. Sonego won the next two points to take the lead and Zverev then double-faulted to end the set.
Zverev then broke for a 3-2 lead in the fourth set, but Sonego raced from corner to corner of the court in the next game to break right back. Sonego then got within two points from winning the match with a 5-4 lead, but Zverev held serve and then broke to go ahead 6-5.
Sonego had his hand or wrist checked before the start of the final set. He appeared OK afterward, but Zverev got the break he needed to grab a 3-2 lead and stayed ahead from there.
Zverev advanced to face Quentin Halys in the second round, and the 2020 US Open runner-up wasn't disappointed that he needed to work so hard to get there.
"Actually, I’m happy that I won this kind of battle because this is exactly the match that I needed," he said. “I struggled the last two tournaments, I didn’t play well and sometimes good things happen after you fight through one of these matches. So I’m hoping that will be the case for me at this tournament.”
