Five sets, nearly five hours: Zverev survives US Open first-round battle

Alexander Zverev’s US Open campaign nearly began with a historic embarrassment. The top-seeded German needed 4 hours and 53 minutes, five sets and a finish after 1:55 a.m. to overcome Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.

Zverev won 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4 after losing momentum during the match. Sonego, ranked 89th, pushed the French Open champion through a tense contest before congratulating him at the net long after midnight.

The victory spared Zverev from joining a small group of top seeds who have lost in the opening round of a Grand Slam. Since professional tennis began in 1968, only six top-ranked players had previously suffered that result. Zverev will next face France’s Quentin Halys.

Flavio Cobolli, the fifth seed and a French Open finalist, also survived a five-set match after trailing Argentina’s Francisco Comesana by two sets. Cobolli won 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours and 13 minutes. Second-seeded Elena Rybakina, who had injured her Achilles tendon in Cincinnati, beat American Thea Frodin 6-3, 6-2. “I have not played all week, so seven days without tennis and basically not much in the gym either. So it is a great result after 10 days since this kind of injury,” Rybakina said. She could take the world No. 1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka in New York. Coco Gauff beat Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-4. Rain delayed the start of the final first-round matches on the outside courts by almost four hours.

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I have not played all week, so seven days without tennis and basically not much in the gym either. So it is a great result after 10 days since this kind of injury.