Alexander Zverev Advances to US Open Final After Defeating Khachanov

Alexander Zverev marched into the US Open final on Friday night, grinding past Karen Khachanov 6-3 7-6(7) 7-6(6) and tightening his grip on what is fast becoming the season of his career.

The French Open champion, stretched to five sets in each of his opening two rounds in New York, now looks like a different animal entirely. Four straight matches, four straight wins in straight sets. Three consecutive Grand Slam finals. The numbers tell one story; the way he’s imposing himself tells another.

This was his second trip to a title match at Flushing Meadows, four years after he let a two-set lead slip against Dominic Thiem in the 2020 final. That scar still lingers around this place. His tennis suggests he intends to erase it.

Zverev steadies, Khachanov swings

Zverev struck first. The opening set was brisk, controlled, almost cold-blooded from the German. He broke early, protected his serve with authority and never allowed Khachanov to feel close enough to breathe on the set. 6-3, and it felt routine.

Then the match sharpened.

Riding that early momentum, Zverev broke again at the start of the second set and looked ready to run away with it. Khachanov refused to play the supporting role. The unseeded Russian finally found his depth, started unloading off both wings and, crucially, snapped Zverev’s run of 37 consecutive service games without being broken.

Suddenly the rallies lengthened. Zverev’s dominance on serve wobbled. Khachanov began to stalk the baseline, stepping in, taking the ball early, dragging the semi-final into the kind of physical, edgy contest that has so often unsettled Zverev in the past.

The set hurtled into a tiebreak, and that’s where Khachanov really threatened to flip the script. He swung freely, went after second serves, and for long stretches of a gripping 14-minute breaker, he had Zverev on the back foot.

But the pressure told in the opposite direction. At the decisive points, Khachanov blinked. A forehand pulled wide here, a backhand dropped into the net there. Zverev, who has spent years being questioned about his nerve on the biggest stages, held firm and slammed the door. Two sets up, but it felt far from settled.

A familiar pattern, a different Zverev

The third set mirrored the second. Tight service games, thin margins, and the sense that one surge from Khachanov could drag the match into deep water.

Again, they arrived at a tiebreak. Again, Khachanov made the first move, snatching a brief lead and hinting at a late twist. Zverev refused to let it breathe. He reeled him back in, locked down his serve and turned the screw on return, leaning on the weight and precision that have defined his summer.

When the final Khachanov error flew long, Zverev had his seventh win in 10 meetings against the Russian and a straight-sets scoreline that felt tougher than it looked.

He walks into Sunday’s final with a 24-2 record in Grand Slam matches this season, a statistic that underlines just how relentlessly he has played at the majors in 2024.

Waiting for him will be the winner of the all-American semi-final between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, a clash tailor-made for the New York night and the roars of Arthur Ashe.

"I can't wait for Sunday. It's going to be incredibly special, Francis and Ben are crowd favourites here in New York," Zverev said, already casting his eyes toward one more step. "Tonight is going to be an epic semi-final, I’m looking forward to watching it. Hopefully I can (stop) the American dream coming true."

Four years after heartbreak in this stadium, he gets another shot at the trophy. This time, he arrives not as the nearly man, but as the most consistent Grand Slam player of the year. The question now is simple: can anyone stop him over five sets on Sunday?