Alexander Zverev opened his U.S. Open tennis championships campaign with a five-set win over Lorenzo Sonego early Wednesday in New York, a demanding start for the No. 1 seed at a Grand Slam that is supposed to punish slow starts. He acknowledged fans after the match, a small gesture that fit a result earned the hard way.
For readers checking US Open results, that was the headline from the day’s first-round action: Zverev moved on, but only after a match that stretched to five sets rather than ending cleanly in straight sets. That matters because opening-round matches are usually where top seeds are expected to settle in quickly, not spend extra hours fighting to survive.
The bigger picture was already building on Tuesday, when Coco Gauff played Zeynep Sonmez, Gael Monfils defeated Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, and Alexandra Eala played Mary Stoiana in first-round matches. A rain delay also interrupted play on the Grandstand court, leaving the opening days of the tournament feeling as much about weather and patience as about scoreboard lines.
Zverev’s result leaves one clear takeaway and one obvious gap. The takeaway is that he is through the first round. The gap is that the set scores were not provided, which leaves the shape of the struggle to the imagination even as the five-set finish makes the difficulty plain.
What comes next is the part the first round has not yet answered: how Zverev will handle the longer path ahead after already being pushed to the edge in his opener. For now, the cleanest reading is simple. He advanced, but the margin for error at the U.S. Open tennis championships was already gone on day one.
