Germany's top seed Alexander Zverev endured another late-night five-set thriller to overcome France's Quentin Halys and advance at the U.S. Open.
Top seed Alexander Zverev was forced to go the distance for the second consecutive match at the U.S. Open, defeating France’s Quentin Halys 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 on Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the third round.
The gruelling 4-hour 33-minute contest concluded at just after 2:15 a.m. local time. Following his five-set first-round win that finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 29-year-old German has now spent nearly 10 hours on court across his opening two matches.
Zverev started strongly, taking the only break of the opening set to go 5-4 before serving it out. The second set saw Zverev miss a chance to break for a 5-4 lead before a double fault at 15-40 in his next service game gave Halys two set points, which the Frenchman capitalized on to level the match.
In the third set, Zverev fought back from 4-1 down to level at 4-4, eventually taking the set in a tiebreak after racing to a 5-1 lead. Halys dominated the fourth-set tiebreak to force a decider, but slashed a forehand wide in the fifth set to hand Zverev a crucial break. The German held serve for 5-3 and broke a weary Halys once more to seal the victory.
"The performance was quite (not well), to be honest, but I won; that’s the most important thing," Zverev said in his on-court interview. "Another four-and-a-half hours, 2:15 a.m. – that’s what I go to the gym for," he added, thanking the fans who stayed until the end.
Zverev will face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo in the third round.
Reporting sourced from The Hindu Sport. Photo courtesy The Hindu Sport.