New York, 04 September (H.S.): Top-seeded German Alexander Zverev was pushed to the limit by France’s Quentin Halys in the second round of the US Open. Zverev eventually defeated world No. 52 Halys 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 in a match that continued until late Thursday night, or the early hours of Friday in India, to secure a place in the third round.

The 29-year-old Zverev has now spent nearly 10 hours on court across his opening two matches. He will face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo in the third round.

Speaking in his on-court interview after the victory, Zverev said, “Honestly, my performance was pretty bad, but I won. That’s the most important thing.”

He added, “It’s four and a half hours and it’s 2:15 in the morning. That’s why I work in the gym.”

Zverev also thanked the spectators who remained inside the stadium until the match ended despite the late hour.

“The few thousand people who stayed until the end made up for the 15,000 spectators who left the stadium,” Zverev said.

Zverev dominated the opening set, securing the only break of serve in the match to move 5-4 ahead before serving out the set in the following game. In the second set, Zverev earned a break point at 4-4, but Halys fought back to hold his serve. The Frenchman then broke Zverev’s serve and went on to take the set 6-4.

Halys established a 4-1 lead in the third set, but Zverev produced a strong comeback to force a tie-break. After taking a 5-1 lead in the tie-break, Zverev closed out the set. Halys, however, responded by winning the fourth-set tie-break to take the contest into a deciding fifth set.

In the decisive set, Halys committed the first crucial error when his forehand sailed well beyond the court, handing Zverev an important break. The German then held serve twice to establish a 5-3 lead before breaking the tiring Halys once again to seal the match.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar