Day 9 completed the fourth round, with Alexander Zverev looking increasingly comfortable while everyone around him seemed determined to make life as difficult as possible.
Zverev followed up his straight-sets win over Tabilo with another routine victory against Luciano Darderi and is now into the quarter-finals quite comfortably after those early five-hour endurance tests.
Botic van de Zandschulp went in the opposite direction, somehow coming back from two sets down against Arthur Gea in a five-hour, 13-minute marathon. Gea had a match point in the third-set tiebreak and then served for the match in the fourth, so that one will probably sting for a while.
Karen Khachanov also needed five sets to end Learner Tien’s run, while Alexander Blockx saw off Francisco Cerundolo despite struggling with a rib problem early in the match.
Here’s a look at all the Day 9 results and the matches that stood out.
Day Nine US Open 2026 Round of 16 Results
Key Match Recap
Alexander Zverev def. Luciano Darderi 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(3)
Alexander Zverev followed up his last match with another back-to-back straight-sets win and was far too good for Luciano Darderi for most of this one.
The first two sets were very straightforward. Zverev served extremely well, controlled the baseline and gave Darderi very little to work with as he won just four games.
The Italian raised his level in the third, landing a few more first serves, but Zverev stayed solid, survived a long 11th game, and then played a tidy tiebreak.
That is now 50 wins for the season, and he is the only man to reach the quarter-finals at all four majors this year. He saved the one break point he faced, landed 13 aces and fired 43 winners. 5 double faults and 4/17 on break points are the two areas to tidy up.
Botic van de Zandschulp is next, and the Dutchman has just spent over five hours on court.
Botic van de Zandschulp def. Arthur Gea 3-6, 6-7(6), 7-6(9), 7-6(3), 6-4
Botic van de Zandschulp survived one of the craziest matches of the tournament, coming from two sets down and saving a match point to beat Arthur Gea in five hours and 13 minutes.
Gea looked set to become the first lucky loser to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final. He led by two sets, had match point in the third-set tiebreak and then served for the match at 5-4 in the fourth. But somehow came out on the losing side.
Van de Zandschulp was nowhere near his best for large parts of the match, but he just kept hanging around and made Gea play every last point.
The Frenchman tightened up at the worst possible moments, while Botic started swinging much more freely once he was basically playing with nothing to lose.
He eventually found the decisive break in the fifth and closed it out after another marathon. That is back-to-back five-setters for him, so I am not sure how much he will have left against Zverev, but he’s got two US Open quarterfinals on his resume now.
Karen Khachanov def. Learner Tien 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(8), 6-1, 6-4
Learner Tien’s run came to an end in another physical five-setter against Karen Khachanov.
As expected, Khachanov tried to hit through Tien, while Tien kept dragging him into longer rallies and forcing him to play one extra ball.
Tien did a decent job of hanging around and edged a tight third-set tiebreak to move two sets to one ahead, and at that point, it looked like Khachanov could be in trouble, but he responded with his best spell of the match and raced through the fourth 6-1.
The fifth was much tighter, but Khachanov eventually found the break he needed and closed it out after three hours and 50 minutes.
Khachanov is a real beast physically, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the guy get tired and somehow he is back in a major quarter-final despite arriving in New York on a 4-match losing streak, which included a straight-set loss to Bernard Tomic. He’s now beaten two Top 15 players to reach his 7th Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Alexander Blockx def. Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5
Alexander Blockx collected another very impressive win, this time against Francisco Cerundolo.
Blockx received treatment for a rib issue early in the match, but it didn’t stop him from taking the opening set and competing extremely well throughout. He later revealed he was actually close to retiring, but the pain meds started doing their job, and from set 3 onwards he started to feel better.
All in all, it was probably the worst quality match of the day, but Blockx was stronger in the big moments, saving 14 of the 17 break points he faced, and showed no real signs of nerves.
Blockx is now into the quarter-finals on his US Open debut and becomes the first Belgian man to reach the last eight here. Will his rib injury be a problem?
Highlights
US Open 2026 Day 10 Quarterfinal Matches
- Frances Tiafoe [11] v Alex Michelsen — Arthur Ashe Stadium, not before 1:00 PM
- Ben Shelton [8] v Carlos Alcaraz [2] — Arthur Ashe Stadium, 7:00 PM
