Alexander Zverev walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium just before 2 a.m., not so much relieved as rescued.
For almost five hours, the top seed’s US Open campaign dangled over the edge before he clawed past Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 in a first-round epic that felt far too savage for an opening assignment.
A champion under siege
This is Zverev’s first Grand Slam as a reigning major champion, the French Open trophy still fresh in the memory and his name suddenly carrying the weight that comes with expectation. With world No. 1 Jannik Sinner absent and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz only just back from injury, the German arrived in New York as the man many expect to own this fortnight.
For long stretches on Tuesday night, Sonego didn’t just ignore that script. He tore it up.
Zverev edged a tight first set, but even that came with warning signs. He carved out seven break points and converted only one, letting Sonego hang around and swing freely. The Italian, ranked 89 in the world but playing with the swagger of a top-20 shotmaker, seized his chance in the second.
An early break, aggressive returning, and suddenly the match tilted. Sonego served out the set to love, sealing it with an ace that sliced through the New York night. Zverev, who had started the evening as the clear favourite, now found himself in a street fight.
The slip, the brink, the escape
The third set turned into a tug of war. Both men traded blows, traded momentum, and refused to give ground. When it finally spilled into a tiebreak, Zverev blinked first. A costly double fault handed Sonego the opening he needed, and the Italian pounced to move ahead two sets to one.
Now it was serious.
The fourth set only tightened the screws. They traded breaks, the tension rising with every service game. Zverev, the top seed and newly minted major winner, stood two points from defeat, staring down the possibility of becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round of a Slam since Lleyton Hewitt crashed out of Wimbledon in 2003.
The pressure finally told — not on him, but on Sonego. Zverev dug out a crucial hold, then broke serve with the kind of clean, authoritative hitting that has defined his best tennis this season. From the edge of elimination, he forced a deciding set.
Sonego fades, Zverev survives
By the fifth, the toll of nearly five hours began to show. Sonego, who had pushed the top seed to the limit with fearless, attacking tennis, started to fade. The legs slowed, the first serve lost a touch of bite, and Zverev, sensing his moment, tightened his grip.
The German completed the turnaround, closing out the match 6-4 in the fifth. No collapse, no historic upset, no unwanted place in the record books. Just a brutal escape.
“I’m just happy I won, that’s it,” Zverev said afterwards, the understatement of a man who knew how close he had come to disaster. He called it “an incredible battle, lots of ups and downs, nearly five hours,” and noted it was his longest first-round match at a Grand Slam.
“He would have beaten a lot of players,” Zverev added of Sonego. On this evidence, he’s right.
Zverev leaves the court still very much the man to beat in New York. But on night one, the US Open reminded him: nothing about this new era of his career will come easy.
