It was just past one in the morning when Alexander Zverev closed out the match — and yet the top seed never looked truly fatigued during this 2026 US Open third round. Against 25th-seeded Alejandro Tabilo of Chile, the German prevailed 6:2, 7:6, 6:2. The match had begun shortly before midnight, delayed by an extended night session encounter earlier on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
A statement first set
Zverev controlled the contest with his serve from the very first point. In the opening set he conceded not a single break point, broke Tabilo's serve twice and took the set 6:2 — closing it out with an unreturnable serve. Throughout the match, Zverev held serve in 86 percent of his service games and won 74 percent of points behind his first serve. Tabilo, who had spoken before the match about seeking revenge for his defeat on the same court the previous year, could find no answer to that level of play.
Drama in the second set — and an incident in the tiebreak
The second set proved far more open. Zverev raced ahead 4:2, but then lost his rhythm — Tabilo reeled off three consecutive games to level at 5:5. The left-hander seized his opportunity, yet lacked the consistency when it mattered most. The set went to a tiebreak, which Zverev controlled emphatically, winning it 7:2. In the middle of that tiebreak, Zverev loudly called out a spectator at courtside who appeared to be shouting coaching instructions onto the court. The interruption did not unsettle him — if anything, he produced his best tennis of the evening immediately afterwards.
Zverev closes it out in the third set
In the third set, the world number two left nothing to chance. He surged to 5:2 and then served out the match. After 2 hours and 26 minutes, it was over. Zverev struck ten aces in total, hit 44 winners and saved 75 percent of Tabilo's break points. Tabilo finished with 36 unforced errors — far too many to put the top seed under any serious pressure.
The context made the victory all the more remarkable: Zverev had spent approximately nine hours and 26 minutes on court in reaching the third round — more than any other top seed at this stage of a Grand Slam since 1999. Tabilo, making his deepest run at the US Open in his career, was unable to exploit that fatigue. Zverev's strong record against left-handers — he had won 46 of 50 matches against them heading into this encounter — proved telling once again: Tabilo's left-handedness offered him no structural edge. Alexander Zverev is into the 2026 US Open round of 16.
