Alexander Zverev hailed his five-set thriller with Lorenzo Sonego as an “incredible battle” after beating the Italian in the first round of the US Open in just under five hours.
The top seed came into the tournament off the back of winning just two matches at the Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati, and after going two sets to one down to the 31-year-old, it looked like it could be curtains for the German.
But the French Open champion rallied and came back to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in a contest that lasted four hours and 53 minutes and finished at 1.55am on Wednesday.
Although he now has a perfect 7-0 record against the former world No 21, Zverev conceded that this gruelling US Open encounter was anything but easy.
He said on court, “I’m just happy I won. That’s it. Incredible battle. A lot of ups and downs. Nearly five hours for a first round. I think this is the longest first-round match I’ve ever played in my life. So credit to him, he played amazing tennis today. He would have beaten a lot of players for sure, but I’m happy to be through.”
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This was actually Zverev’s second-longest match of his Grand Slam career, with only his five hour, 27 minute-long Australian Open semi-final loss to Carlos Alcaraz in January pipping it.
While many players would have preferred to conserve their energy and ease into round two with a straight sets victory, the 6ft 6in player said the opposite.
He added, “Actually, I’m happy that I won this kind of battle. This is exactly the match that I needed because I struggled in the last two tournaments, I didn’t play well, and sometimes good things happen after you fight through one of these matches. So I’m hoping that will be the case for me this tournament.”
Ahead of facing Frenchman Quentin Halys in round two, a player he holds a 2-0 head to head against, Zverev took time to praise Sonego, who has fallen to 85th in the rankings and has an 11-14 win/loss record for the year.
The world No 2 described the veteran as an “amazing” player, who has so many weapons in his arsenal. Zverev also admitted that his usually trusty backhand let him down on multiple occasions.
He said, via Christian’s Court, “I think he’s an incredible player who struggled this year, and it’s as simple as that sometimes. Today he played like he normally plays, and he’s an amazing tennis player.
“For me has an amazing serve, amazing forehand. He can return so quickly. I would say I would have one of the fastest second serves on tour, and he was attacking it all the time. So he played amazing. I have to give credit to him, but yeah, I’m just happy that in the end I managed to win.
“I think there’s definitely room for improvement. Funnily enough, I think I missed a few more backhands than I usually do. That’s something that doesn’t happen very often. But definitely something that maybe I can adjust a little bit and hopefully moving forward it will be better.
“Overall, I think it was a great, tough battle, and I think it was a match that I needed after the last couple of weeks.”
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