Alexander Zverev closes out Jacob Fearnley on sixth match point to advance at US Open

While much of the attention on the men’s side at this year’s US Open has centered around the Top 2 players in the world, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the next man on the rankings, Alexander Zverev, has been quietly advancing through the draw, too.

The world No. 3 held off a late surge from Great Britain’s Jacob Fearnley on Thursday night to move through to the third round, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, and hasn’t dropped a set yet—in the first round, he defeated Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

He’s now through to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the milestone 30th time in his career.

ZVEREV'S THIRD-ROUND APPEARANCES AT GRAND SLAMS (30):

• Australian Open: 8 times [2017-2022, 2024-2025]
• Roland Garros: 9 times [2016, 2018-2025]
• Wimbledon: 6 times [2016-2018, 2021, 2023-2024]
• US Open: 7 times [2018-2021, 2023-2025]

His best career results at majors are three finals, at the 2020 US Open (finishing runner-up to Dominic Thiem), 2024 Roland Garros (finishing runner-up to Alcaraz) and the 2025 Australian Open (finishing runner-up to Sinner).

Having won both of the pair’s previous meetings in straight sets, Zverev kept that pattern going on Thursday night on Louis Armstrong Stadium, breaking in the very first game of the match to set the tone, and eventually finding himself up two sets to love and 5-1 in the third.

Things were far from over, though.

After fighting off a match point in his 1-5 service game and holding, Fearnley then broke Zverev in the next game to close the gap to just one break, and then staved off another four match points in his 3-5 service game, eventually holding for 4-5, and forcing Zverev to serve for the match one more time.

The German came through on his second attempt, though, clinching the match on his sixth match point when the No. 60-ranked Brit put one last backhand into the net.

Awaiting the No. 3-seeded Zverev in the next round will be No. 25-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 6-1, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) winner over Roman Safiullin.

Zverev leads Auger-Aliassime in their head-to-head series, 6-2, and is 4-1 against him on hard courts, but the Canadian did win the pair's only career meeting at a Grand Slam event, and thus their only best-of-five-set encounter, with a 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4 victory in the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2021.