Open on Friday (September 4, 2026). Top seed Alexander Zverev was put through the late-night ringer once more before booking his place in the third round of the U.S.
The 29-year-old, who has spent nearly 10 hours on court in his opening two matches, will face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo in the next round.
“The performance was quite (not well), to be honest, but I won; that’s the most important thing,” Zverev said in an on-court interview afterwards. “Another four-and-a-half hours, 2:15 a.m. – that’s what I go to the gym for,” he added, before thanking die-hard fans who remained in the stadium for the end of the match. “The couple thousand people (who stayed) made up for the 15,000 that left,” he said.
Yet it was a different story when the fourth set ended in a tiebreak, with Halys dominating Zverev to level the match and take it to a decider. Yet Zverev’s composed service game suddenly looked vulnerable, and a double fault gave Halys two set points at 15-40, which the Frenchman pounced on to knot it at one set apiece.