Alexander Zverev Survives Five-Set Thriller Against Lorenzo Sonego

Alexander Zverev walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium just before 2 a.m., not so much relieved as drained. The top seed had stared down the kind of opening-round disaster that haunts favourites at Grand Slams, then clawed his way back from the brink to survive Lorenzo Sonego and a five-set ordeal that lasted almost five hours.

The scoreline – 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 – only hints at how close Zverev came to joining the wrong kind of history.

A champion under siege

This is Zverev’s first trip to New York as a major champion, the French Open trophy finally sitting on his résumé and expectations rising with it. With world No. 1 Jannik Sinner absent and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz only just returning from injury, the draw has painted him as the man to beat.

For long stretches on Tuesday night, Sonego looked ready to tear that script apart.

Zverev edged the opening set but wasted chances that would come back to haunt him. He converted just one of seven break points, allowing Sonego to hang around, find rhythm and grow in confidence. The Italian, ranked 89 in the world but playing far above that number, began to swing freely.

The response was immediate. Sonego broke early in the second set, stamped his authority on the baseline exchanges and never let Zverev back in. Serving at 5-3, he didn’t blink: a love hold, finished with an ace, levelled the match and shifted the mood inside the stadium.

Suddenly, the top seed looked vulnerable.

Sonego seizes control

The third set turned into a tug-of-war. Both men traded blows, both saw half-chances come and go. Sonego matched Zverev’s power, disrupted his rhythm and refused to be bullied behind his serve.

The pressure finally told in the tiebreak.

Zverev, usually so secure in these moments, blinked. A costly double fault opened the door and Sonego strode straight through it, snatching the set and a 2-1 lead. The upset, once a distant possibility, now felt very real.

Zverev suddenly stood one set from becoming the first top seed to lose in the opening round of a Grand Slam since Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003. The weight of that statistic hung over every point.

Two points from the exit

The fourth set crackled with tension. Both players broke serve, both looked as if they might seize control, neither could quite land the knockout punch.

Then came the moment. With Sonego closing in, Zverev found himself just two points from defeat. The German had been dragged into long rallies, pushed off his patterns and forced to chase. The match teetered on the edge.

He held.

That crucial service game steadied his nerves and stalled Sonego’s charge. Zverev then pounced, breaking serve and dragging the contest into a deciding set. It wasn’t dominance. It was survival.

“I’m just happy I won, that’s it,” he said afterwards, the understatement of a man who knew how close he had come.

The final push

The fifth set belonged to the player who had more left in the tank. Sonego, after nearly five hours of relentless, high-risk tennis, began to fade. The legs were heavier, the forehand a fraction slower through the ball. The Italian’s resistance never collapsed completely, but the intensity dipped just enough.

Zverev sensed it. He tightened up his service games, cut out the loose errors and pressed on return. One break was all he needed. As Sonego’s energy drained, the German finally completed the turnaround, closing out the match and his place in the second round.

“I think it was an incredible battle, lots of ups and downs, nearly five hours,” Zverev said. “I think it was my longest first-round match at a Grand Slam. He would have beaten a lot of players but I’m happy to be through.”

Happy, and perhaps warned.

On a night when the top seed flirted with disaster and the underdog played like a man with nothing to lose, Zverev escaped. The question now is whether this bruising opener becomes the scare that sharpens a champion’s resolve, or a sign of more turbulence to come in New York.