NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alexander Zverev booked his place in the U.S. Open final on Friday, beating Karen Khachanov 6-3 7-6(7) 7-6(6) to move a step closer to a second Grand Slam title.
The French Open champion had been pushed to five sets in each of his opening two rounds but has now won four straight matches without dropping a set, as he reached his third consecutive major final.
The victory also sends him to his second title decider at Flushing Meadows, after finishing runner-up in 2020 to Dominic Thiem.
"After the second round at 3am, me and my team were in the dressing room actually laughing at how bad I was playing. That sense of humour helped me," the 29-year-old Zverev said on court. "I have improved a little bit, otherwise I wouldn’t be in the U.S. Open final."
Zverev struck first to take the opening set before carrying that momentum into the second with an early break.
Khachanov, however, found his range and broke back, ending Zverev's run of 37 consecutive service games without being broken. The unseeded Russian then threatened to swing the match in a gripping tiebreak.
The German held his nerve to close it out after a 14-minute breaker, aided by Khachanov's errors at the crucial moments.
The third set followed a similar pattern, with Khachanov taking a brief lead in the tiebreak before Zverev again fought back to seal his seventh win in 10 meetings against the Russian.
Zverev, who now boasts a 24-2 record in Grand Slam matches this season, will face the winner of the all-American semi-final between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton in Sunday's title match.
"I can't wait for Sunday. It's going to be incredibly special, Francis and Ben are crowd favourites here in New York," Zverev said.
"Tonight is going to be an epic semi-final, I’m looking forward to watching it. Hopefully I can (stop) the American dream coming true."