Alexander Zverev reaches the round of 16 after fighting late into the night

The dream lives on: Night owl Alexander Zverev has reached the round of 16 of the US Open after a hard fight and has taken an important step on the way to his longed-for first Grand Slam title.

The Hamburg native defeated Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry 5:7, 7:5, 6:1, 6:3 in New York a whole hour later and emerged as the big winner from a memorable evening in Flushing Meadows after the sensational exit of his potential semi-final opponent Novak Djokovic.

It was not until 2:35 a.m. local time that the Hamburg native used his second match point to win against the bravely fighting Argentinian on Saturday night. It was his 100th match point at a major tournament. In the US metropolis, the path to the final now seems clear. After the failure of Olympic champion Djokovic, Zverev is the top seed in his half of the tournament. In the round of 16, he will face the American Brandon Nakashima.

Zverev had to wait a long time for his turn on Friday; the party only started at 10:58 p.m. local time in the Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second largest arena in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. At the beginning, the Olympic champion from Tokyo made a lot of simple mistakes against the 33rd in the world rankings, and even with his usually strong serve, the Hamburg player was only able to exert little pressure. He kept cursing in the direction of his box.

It was only from the second set onwards that Zverev improved continuously. He had defeated Etcheverry in four sets in their first encounter in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros 2023, and in New York he set course for the round of 16 from the middle of the third set. In the fourth set, he fended off three break points at 2:3 and then could not be stopped.

Zverev wins his first Grand Slam title

At the 35th attempt, Zverev is finally aiming for his first Grand Slam triumph. In New York, where he has now reached at least the round of 16 in each of his last five appearances, he was only two points away from victory in 2020 before suffering one of the bitterest defeats of his career against Dominic Thiem.

At the dress rehearsal in Cincinnati, Zverev had recently shown his improving form by reaching the semifinals after weeks of health and sporting setbacks, which he has now confirmed. The victory against Etcheverry was already his 55th this year – no other player on the tour has achieved more.