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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Alexander Zverev vs Lorenzo Sonego — 6-4 3-6 6-7(7) 7-5 6-4
 Alexander Zverev✓ | 6 | 3 | 67 | 7 | 6 |
 Lorenzo Sonego | 4 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
Final · Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
The top seed at a major for the first time — Jannik Sinner having withdrawn with a knee injury — Zverev came two points from becoming the first men's No. 1 seed beaten in the first round of a Slam since Wimbledon 2003, and the first at the US Open since 1990. It took four hours and fifty-three minutes and ended at 1:55 a.m., the fifth set having begun at one o'clock in front of perhaps a thousand people, rain drumming on the closed Ashe roof. Zverev led by a set, fell flat on his back chasing a drop shot — Sonego climbed the net to help him up — then lost two, the third on his sixth double fault at 9-7 in the tiebreak. Sonego, 31 and ranked 89th, served at 5-4, 30-30 in the fourth and saved seventeen of the twenty-two break points he faced. Zverev, the Roland Garros champion this year and the Wimbledon runner-up, checked his blood sugar at changeovers and broke for 3-2 in the fifth. "I struggled the last two tournaments," he said. "Sometimes good things happen after you fight through one of these matches."
Alexander ZverevRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 128 is the widest the net ever gets: 64 men's matches across three days, every seed in action, every qualifier dreaming. This year's edition opens on a changed map — Jannik Sinner's knee has taken the world No. 1 out of the tournament, so Zverev, freshly a Roland-Garros champion, tops the draw for the first time, with defending champion Carlos Alcaraz seeded 2 on the other side. First-round losers leave with $140,000; the winner here gets a midweek date with Halys or Díaz Acosta in the Round of 64.
What we know now
Court: Arthur Ashe Stadium
Match length: 4:53
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
Zverev, and comfortably. He arrives as the top seed for the first time at a major — Jannik Sinner's knee took the world No. 1 out of the field — and, more to the point, he arrives as a Grand Slam champion at last, having broken through at Roland-Garros in June. The head-to-head is the cleanest argument on the page: six meetings, six Zverev wins, two of them in the last year. Sonego at 31 is having a lean season (12–15, with a losing career hard-court record), and his path to trouble here runs through a serve Zverev returns as well as anyone. A set could get away on a tiebreak; the match should not.
The case for Alexander Zverev
86.5% to winThe June breakthrough removed the one thing that ever weighed on him at majors. Zverev is 46–13 this season, a French Open champion, the No. 1 seed in Sinner's absence, and he has never lost to Sonego in six tries — including wins in each of the last three seasons. His return game against a serve-first opponent is exactly the style matchup he grinds down: make Sonego play a fifth ball, and the rallies tilt one way.
The case for Lorenzo Sonego
13.5% to winSonego's game travels on his serve and forehand, and he has taken sets off Zverev before — Halle went the distance twice, and he pushed a tiebreak as recently as last year. New York rewards his kind of first-strike tennis more than most venues, and a 12–15 season means he arrives with nothing to protect. If the serve lands at a high percentage and the first set steals away, the pressure of a first No. 1 seeding is Zverev's to carry, not his.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Alexander Zverev to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Six wins in six career meetings, a 46–13 season, and the first No. 1 seeding of his career against an opponent with a losing year.”
Locked 2026-08-28 02:35 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Alexander ZverevLorenzo SonegoPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Storylines
- Zverev is the No. 1 seed at a Grand Slam for the first time — a seeding opened up by Jannik Sinner's withdrawal with a right knee injury.
- This is Zverev's first US Open since winning Roland-Garros in June — his first major title after three lost finals, including the 2020 final here.
- The head-to-head is 6–0 Zverev, with wins on hard, grass and clay; Sonego has never beaten a reigning major champion at a Slam.
Head to head
Six meetings, six Zverev wins, spread across every surface — most recently Beijing last autumn (6-4 6-3). Sonego has made two of them close on grass at Halle, but he has never made one his.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Tuesday 1 September in the night session. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-30)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — was forecast at 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that could not be pushed back. The rain came in the morning and stopped before the final, which Ashe played with its roof open. It cleared from there: 15% overnight, 15% Monday, then dry and sunny. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.