NEW YORK — Alexander Zverev rallied just in time to avoid becoming the first men's No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament since 2003, edging Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 in a match that ended Wednesday morning.
Zverev won his first major title at the French Open, lost to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, then became the No. 1 seed in a major for the first time when Sinner had to withdraw with a right knee injury.
He couldn't cash in on repeated chances to break Sonego's serve for much of the night and was in danger of becoming the first top-seeded man to fall in his first match in a major since Ivo Karlovic beat Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003.
It hasn't happened at the U.S. Open since Stefan Edberg lost to Alexander Volkov in 1990. Zverev finally broke through against Sonego's serve late to pull out the match in 4 hours, 52 minutes.
Zverev is 7-0 against Sonego, an Italian who came in 1-9 against top-10 men in Grand Slams. But Sonego's speed around the court allowed him to track down balls that on other nights would have been winners, and he came up with enough clutch serves to make Zverev just 5 for 22 on break points for the match.
