NEW YORK – Alexander Zverev walked back into a US Open final on Wednesday night with the look of a man who now knows exactly how this stage feels – and what it takes to finish the job.
The French Open champion, stretched to five sets in each of his first two matches in New York, has since slammed the door on any drama. Four straight matches, four straight wins in straight sets. Karen Khachanov was the latest to feel that weight, beaten 6-3, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (8-6) as Zverev powered into his third consecutive Grand Slam final.
Zverev in command, then under fire
The start was clinical. Zverev broke first, controlled the opening set and never looked rushed. His serve, such a fragile weapon earlier in his career, looked rock solid again as he dictated the baseline exchanges and kept Khachanov on the stretch.
He carried that rhythm straight into the second set with an early break, and for a moment it looked like a routine march to the finish. Then the match cracked open.
Khachanov finally found his range off both wings, stepped inside the court and snapped Zverev’s streak of 37 consecutive service games without being broken. The unseeded Russian began swinging freely, forcing the German into longer rallies and dragging the set into a tie-break that bristled with tension.
The breaker turned into a mini-epic. Fourteen minutes of tight corners, heavy hitting and narrow escapes. Khachanov had chances, real ones, but when the points tightened, his forehand blinked. Zverev did not. He absorbed the pressure, trusted his serve, and edged it 9-7, helped by a cluster of Russian errors at the sharpest moments.
Another tie-break, same story
The third set played out like a tense rerun. Zverev held firm on serve, Khachanov refused to fade, and again the set marched inevitably toward a tie-break.
This time Khachanov jumped ahead, sensing a lifeline. Zverev shut it down. The German reeled him back in with heavy first serves and bold hitting under fire, turning the breaker around and closing it 8-6 to seal his seventh win in 10 meetings against the Russian.
No roar, no wild celebration – just a clenched fist and a calm walk to the net. A man who has been here before.
Flushing Meadows, unfinished business
For Zverev, this return to the US Open final carries a particular weight. He lost his first title match at Flushing Meadows in 2020 to Dominic Thiem, a five-set defeat that still lingers in any discussion of his career.
Now he comes back as a Grand Slam champion, with a 24-2 record in majors this season and the authority of someone who has finally broken through on the biggest stage.
Waiting for him on Sept 12 will be the winner of the all-American semi-final between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. A home crowd will roar for the local hope, whoever it is.
Zverev will walk into that noise with his own agenda: to turn a second chance in New York into a second Grand Slam title.
