Alexander Zverev survived the longest first-round match of his career, rallying to defeat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in 4 hours and 52 minutes to avoid becoming the first men’s No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament since 2003.
The match ended in the early hours Wednesday morning. Zverev said afterward that nearly five hours for a first-round match is the longest he has ever played in his life, and credited Sonego for playing well enough to have beaten a lot of players.
He was repeatedly unable to convert on break point opportunities, finishing 5-for-22 on break chances in the match. For long stretches he was in danger of becoming the first top-seeded man to fall in the first round of a major since Ivo Karlovic beat Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003. It has not happened at the US Open since Stefan Edberg lost to Alexander Volkov in 1990.
Sonego, who came into the match 1-9 against top-10 players at Grand Slams, tracked down balls that on most nights would have been winners and produced enough clutch serves to make Zverev’s break point inefficiency the central story of the match. He had been 0-6 against the Italian before this match reversed that record.
How the match unfolded
Zverev broke when Sonego served for the third set at 5-4 and took a 7-6 lead in the ensuing tiebreaker with consecutive serves of 133 and 141 miles per hour. Sonego won the next two points, then Zverev double-faulted to end the set.
In the fourth set, he broke for a 3-2 lead but Sonego fought back from corner to corner to break immediately. Sonego then reached 5-4 and was within two points of winning the match before Zverev held serve, then broke to lead 6-5. His hand or wrist was assessed before the fifth set but he continued. Zverev broke for a 3-2 lead in the fifth and stayed ahead from there.
The context of the match
Zverev won the French Open this year for his first Grand Slam title, then lost to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final. He became the No. 1 seed at the US Open after Sinner withdrew with a right knee injury. The circumstance of becoming a No. 1 seed for the first time at a major through a withdrawal, rather than ranking, added a specific pressure to this opening match.
He said he was actually happy to have won a match of that difficulty, because it was exactly what he needed after struggling in his two previous tournaments. He said sometimes good things happen after fighting through that kind of battle and expressed hope that this would be the case for him at this tournament.
He advances to face Quentin Halys in the second round. He was the US Open finalist in 2020, losing to Dominic Thiem.
A record that nearly fell
The specificity of the record at stake gives the match a historical footnote. No. 1 seeds in men’s Grand Slams had been losing in the first round so rarely that the last occurrence was more than two decades ago. The depth of modern professional tennis means top players rarely enter major tournaments in poor enough form to lose to a player ranked well outside the top 10 in the first round.
The 5-for-22 performance on break points kept the match competitive far longer than it might have been on a night of normal conversion. The Italian played at the level required to keep it genuinely competitive.
