Top seed Alexander Zverev out-gunned Karen Khachanov to reach his third straight Grand Slam final on Friday, rolling into the US Open title match with a straight sets win. He’ll face the winner of the all-American semi-final between eighth-seeded Ben Shelton and 11th seed Frances Tiafoe in Sunday’s championship match. Zverev, who followed up his maiden major at the French Open with a runner-up finish at Wimbledon, saved two set points in the final tiebreaker to close out the 6-3, 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (8/6) victory.
“Hopefully I can not make the American dream come true on Sunday,” said Zverev, who came agonizingly close to the US Open title in 2020 before falling to Dominic Thiem in five sets.
The Russian couldn’t resist a grin when he snuck a passing shot by Zverev to open the fourth game, and flung his arm into the air in celebration three points later when a forehand winner gave him his first break chance of the match. Neither player mustered a break point in a tense third set. After a somewhat inauspicious start to the tournament, spending nine hours and 26 minutes on court in laborious five-set victories in the first and second rounds, Zverev has steadily upped his game. But the Russian, who fell to Zverev in the Olympic gold medal match in Tokyo in 2021, put up a spirited challenge in the second and third sets. Khachanov had a chance to extend the match when he took a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker, but after a pair of forehand errors from the Russian Zverev came up with his 15th ace and sealed the win on the next point when Khachanov sent a forehand long.
