{"id":845625,"date":"2026-09-12T20:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T20:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845625\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T20:38:10","slug":"alexander-zverev-grinds-down-karen-khachanov-to-reach-u-s-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/845625\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev grinds down Karen Khachanov to reach U.S. Open final"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elena Rybakina<\/a> in the 2026 U.S. Open women\u2019s final.<\/a><\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Alexander Zverev<\/a> has another shot at a Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n

In front of a chatty crowd, the 29-year-old German clinched his third straight appearance in a major final Friday at the U.S. Open. Zverev dispatched world No. 50 Karen Khachanov<\/a> with a straightforward 6-3, 7-6(7), 7-6(6) win.<\/p>\n

That feat puts Zverev in illustrious company. Only six other men \u2014 the usual suspects \u2014 have played at least three consecutive major finals this century: Roger Federer (who made 10 in a row), Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

Zverev now has the chance to win the second Grand Slam title of his career and also of this year, after he claimed the French Open trophy by beating Italy\u2019s Flavio Cobolli. It is his second time in the U.S. Open final; in 2020, he lost to Dominic Thiem from two sets up in front of a near-empty stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Zverev initially moved through the draw in onerous fashion in New York. In total, he has spent more than 19 hours on court, with most of that time logged during a pair of five-set matches in the opening two rounds, which finished past 2 a.m. in front of sparse, late-night crowds.<\/p>\n

Zverev played in the day session for the first time against Khachanov, a former top-10 player. The Russian had reached two previous major semifinals before this one, at the 2022 U.S. Open and 2023 Australian Open, but since reaching the French Open quarterfinals in 2023, he has mostly struggled at the Grand Slams. He couldn\u2019t match Zverev\u2019s consistent power Friday, played into the German\u2019s elite backhand too often and was too frequently hesitant when he needed to go for his shots.<\/p>\n

Zverev merely had to hold steady and wait for his chance.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 seed in the men\u2019s draw has proven adept at taking advantage of opportunities the game affords him. With generational frontrunners Alcaraz and Sinner injured at various points this season, Zverev has consistently stepped up and made the most of their absences.<\/p>\n

He enters Sunday\u2019s final holding comfortable win-loss records against each of his potential opponents. Ben Shelton has never beaten Zverev in five tries, and he has a 9-1 mark against Frances Tiafoe. But Sunday could be different. He has never faced either player as they\u2019ve tried to end a 23-year Grand Slam singles trophy drought for American men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elena Rybakina in the 2026 U.S. Open women\u2019s final.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,28230],"class_list":["post-845625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-top-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}