Alexander Zverev outlasts Jannik Sinner in nearly five hours at 1:30 A.M for cathartic US Open triumph

NEW YORK—“I was completely done.” That’s how Alexander Zverev described how he felt in the fourth set of his fourth-round match with Jannik Sinner on Monday night at the US Open.

At that point, Zverev had played for more than three hours in humid, 80-degree-plus conditions. He had watched the clock pass midnight, and then 1:00 A.M. He had even had someone kicked out of Arthur Ashe Stadium for yelling “Deutschland Über Alles.”

Twice Zverev had seen Sinner bounce back from losing a set to winning the next one. During the third set, Sinner had been slowed by what looked to be a potentially match-ending case of leg cramps. By the end of the fourth, though, he was moving and playing as well as he had all night, and appeared to be the fitter of the two players.

By contrast, as the match progressed, Zverev was taking longer and longer between his service points. More than once, he bent down and put his elbows on his legs to steady himself. Zverev had lost two crushing five-setters on this court, in the 2020 final and the 2021 semifinals, after having a lead. Was he about to lose a third?

This time the German won. He won because he didn’t blink or sulk or show any negativity after losing the fourth set. He won because when he needed a point, he either found a first serve, or he took the initiative with a ground stroke and moved into net to finish; Zverev went there on 54 points and won 31 of them.

That included some of the most important points of all: To set up break point in the second game of the fifth set; to save a break point in the next game; to get back to 30-30 when he was serving at 3-1, and to close out that game. Finally, and most impressively, serving at 5-3, 30-30 in the fifth, he ghosted in and knifed a tricky backhand volley into the corner, where Sinner couldn’t return it. Transitioning to net has never been natural for Zverev, but he kept a it on Monday night until it worked for him. He won nine of 10 points up there in the fifth set.

Zverev won because, despite the length of the match and his exhaustion, he stayed efficient. He made 70 percent of his first serves and won 70 percent of those points. He hit 56 winners and made 46 errors, compared to 67 errors from Sinner. He saved eight of 12 break points.

Zverev won because his shot selection, and his consistency in hitting those shots, were superior to Sinner’s. As expected, Zverev ranged farther behind the baseline and used more topspin and margin. Sinner hit flatter, speedier shots, but he didn’t always choose the right ones. Instead of drilling easy putaways, he went for and missed a few drop shots on crucial points. Instead of playing defense and staying in rallies when he was pushed back, he went for and missed a few low-percentage drives. And while he broke Zverev’s serve four times, his return position at the very back of the court ceded a lot of space to Zverev. Sinner couldn’t solve his opponent’s serve in the fifth.

Zverev won because, serving at 5-3 in the fifth, down 15-30, he hit an ace, a perfectly measured volley, and a service winner.

His 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win, which took four hours and 41 minutes, was debilitating but cathartic. Sixteen months after suffering a season-ending injury, he called this one of the greatest moments of his career.

“I guess I can say I’m back,” Zverev said to cheers from the thousands still in Ashe when the match ended after 1:30 in the morning.

“Without the energy, without the crowd,” he said he never would have survived. “This is what I love to do.”

Then Zverev was asked about his next match, against Carlos Alcaraz. After stopping to laugh for a few seconds, he said, “I’ll be ready.”