Zverev wins wild five-setter, Rybakina and Gauff ease through at US Open

Top-seeded Alexander Zverev survived a scare, overcoming Lorenzo Sonego in a wild five-setter at the US Open tennis tournament on Tuesday as Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff advanced with ease.

Zverev fought off a determined challenge from Italy’s lowly ranked Sonego, winning 6-4 3-6 6-7 (7/9) 7-5 6-4.

It was a tense all-court battle, spiced by unlikely retrievals, impossibly angled winners and some inexplicable errors, which wrapped up on Arthur Ashe Stadium after four hours and 53 minutes at 1.55am on Wednesday.

“I’m just happy I won, that’s it. Incredible battle,” said Zverev, who was two points from defeat trailing 5-4 in the fourth set.

The German held serve and broke Sonego in the next game, then earned the lone break of the fifth set to complete the win.

Zverev, who followed his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros with a Wimbledon final appearance, notched his seventh win in as many matches against Sonego, ranked 89 in the world.

“Credit to him, he played an incredible match,” Zverev said, adding it was just the kind of battle he needed after lacklustre performances in two hard court tournaments coming into the Open.

There was no such drama for world number two Rybakina and former champion Gauff.

Rybakina, eyeing a third Grand Slam title and the world number one ranking, beat US teen Thea Frodin 6-3 6-2.

Gauff showed off her immensely improved serve in a confident 6-3 6-4 victory over 53rd-ranked Zeynep Sonmez, of Turkey.

The American blazed through the opening set before Sonmez upped her game, recovering from an early break in the second and briefly taking the lead before Gauff regrouped.

“I think I was just trying not to panic,” Gauff said. “She started coming to the net and playing great tennis.

“That 3-all game was real important,” added Gauff, who saved three break points in the sixth game and broke in the next for a lead she wouldn’t relinquish.

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina showed little sign of the left heel injury that forced her out of her quarterfinal in Cincinnati last month.

She saved both break points she faced in a polished performance against the big-hitting but erratic American, who was playing her first Grand Slam main draw match on a wild card.

“I’m happy with the match. Especially when you don’t know your opponent, it always can be dangerous; but overall I’m happy with the first match and how it went,” she said.

Women’s French Open champion Mirra Andreeva also advanced easily, cruising past Indonesia’s 36th-ranked Janice Tjen 6-2 6-2.

Andreeva, seeded fifth, has had a lacklustre period on North American hard courts since her scintillating run to a first Grand Slam title in Paris.

But she was dialled in as she produced her second win over Tjen in less than two weeks.

After a tough win against the Indonesian in Cincinnati, Andreeva said: “I was just trying to be very aggressive.”

Fifth-seeded Flavio Cobolli, runner-up to Zverev at Roland Garros, rallied from two sets down for the first time in his career to beat Argentina’s Francisco Comesana 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-4.

The Italian shook off an erratic start, dropping to his knees and raising his arms in celebration after closing out the four-hour, 13-minute marathon.

“In a Grand Slam it’s never done,” Cobolli said. “You have to fight to the last point.”

In the time it took Cobolli and Comesana to battle it out on the Louis Armstrong Stadium, Americans Madison Keys and Taylor Fritz both posted wins on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Keys, a former Australian Open winner who lost in the first round at Flushing Meadows last year, conquered first-match jitters to beat 19-year-old Russian Alina Korneeva 7-5 6-4.

Nerves didn’t seem to be a problem for ninth-seeded Fritz as he sailed past fellow American Darwin Blanch 6-3 6-2 6-4.

While play went as scheduled on the covered Ashe and Armstrong stadiums, those on outside courts, including Rybakina, had to wait out some lengthy rain delays.

That included a near four-hour delay to the start of play and more delays in the evening. — AFP