Top-Seeded Zverev Advances to US Open Second Round After Two-Day Thriller

World No. 2 men's tennis player Alexander Zverev of Germany and No. 5 Flavio Cobolli of Italy narrowly advanced past the first round of the 2026 US Open (total prize money of $108 million) following grueling full-set matches.

Zverev struggled through a four-hour and 52-minute battle against 89th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy on the third day of the tournament in the men's singles first round held at Flushing Meadows in New York on September 1 (local time), squeaking out a 3-2 (6-4, 3-6, 6-7<7-9>, 7-5, 6-4) victory.

The match, which began on Tuesday night local time, concluded well past midnight into the early morning hours.

With world No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy withdrawing due to a knee injury, Zverev entered the tournament as the top seed.

He nearly became the first top seed to be eliminated in the first round of the US Open in 36 years.

Since Stefan Edberg of Sweden lost to Alexander Volkov of Russia in 1990, no top-seeded player had ever crashed out in the opening round at this tournament.

Zverev earned 22 break-point opportunities on this day, but converted only 5 of them.

In the third-set tiebreak, after taking a 7-6 lead, he surrendered two consecutive points and handed the set over via a double fault.

Sonego, who had been holding his ground well, appeared to experience pain in his right hand early in the fifth set, calling for a medical timeout to receive a massage.

Zverev gained the upper hand thereafter.

Extending his head-to-head winning streak against Sonego to 7-0, Zverev said, "It took almost five hours. It feels like the longest first round of my life." He added, "Sonego played incredible tennis, which is why I am happy with the win today."

Zverev captured his first-ever major title at this year's French Open and finished as the runner-up at Wimbledon following a defeat to Sinner in the final.

Cobolli, this year's French Open runner-up, also struggled through his first-round match.

He secured a 3-2 (3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4) victory over 119th-ranked Francisco Comesana of Argentina after a four-hour and 13-minute battle.

This marks the first time Cobolli has won a five-set match after dropping the opening two sets.

Cobolli pointed to changing his clothes after the second set as the turning point for his comeback.

"When I went to the restroom, I decided to change everything. I swapped out all the clothes I was wearing, and it worked," he said. "There is no giving up in a major tournament. You have to fight until the very last point."

Zverev and Cobolli could have become the tournament's third major upsets.

Earlier, "legend" Novak Djokovic (No. 5, Serbia) and Arthur Fils (No. 11, France) were eliminated in the first round.

In the women's singles, this year's Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina (No. 2, Kazakhstan), who suffered an ankle injury at the preceding tournament, cruised into the second round with a 2-0 (6-3, 6-2) victory over Thea Frodin (No. 585, USA).

Frodin is the player who served as the body double for young Serena Williams' tennis scenes in the movie "King Richard," which depicts the father of tennis greats Serena and Venus Williams.

She made her major singles main draw debut at age 17.

Other strong contenders, including this year's French Open women's singles champion Mirra Andreeva (No. 5, Russia) and 2024 US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz (No. 10, USA), also cruised into the second round.

Morning matches were delayed in succession due to rain that began the previous night.

Play could not take place for a while on outside courts, excluding Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium, which are equipped with roofs.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.